


The Stowaway

by glitterfics



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, First Time, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Mentions of Child Loss, Off Screen Massacre, Romance, WIP Big Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 48,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26544658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: Over the years, Han Solo has managed to collect himself a decent little crew for the Millennium Falcon. After a successful job, Han and his merry band of mischief-makers visit Tuanul to celebrate with some old friends and lay low for a little while.Meanwhile, FN-2187 has a problem. He can’t bring himself to shoot anyone that he perceives to be innocent and the First Order are going to notice that he’s defective sooner rather than later. When a routine mission to arrest a fugitive in Tuanul goes to hell, FN-2187 does the only thing he can, he runs. And stumbles across a YT-1300 freighter that might just be his ticket away from the First Order.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 28
Kudos: 63
Collections: WIP Big Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write this for a Star Wars Big Bang that, unfortunately, died a death by the third check-in. It was pretty disappointing and I just lost my mojo but I've never been able to shake the idea of the Force Awakens squad joining Han on his smuggler adventures. So it was a no-brainer which fic I wanted to finish when I signed up for WIP Big Bang 2020.
> 
> Love and lots of knitted jumpers to my beta, lazydazy, who had to put up with rambling messages so many times that I’m sure she was sick of hearing the word ‘fanfic’ <3

“So, Han’s glaring at the guy, about a second away from punching him in his enormous nose, when the Admiral suddenly appears. He steps in between the two of them and I thought that he was going to try and calm the whole situation down, you know? Instead he spins around and slaps Han as hard as he can!”

Rey blinked at Snap in obvious surprise. “Wait, the Admiral slapped _Han_?”

Snap nodded and grinned at her. “Hard enough to leave a handprint on Han’s cheek. Then turns to the Duke and says, fancy as you like, ‘Please excuse my indentured man, I didn’t exactly buy him for his intelligence.’”

Poe choked on the mouthful of ale he’d just taken. " _Indentured man?_ R’iia’s shorts, I'd have paid a month's worth of credits to have seen the look on Han's face!"

He glanced across the cantina at where the two men in question were sitting at a separate table, waiting for their contact to show up. Statura was shaking his head at whatever Han was saying to him; another heavily embellished story, judging from Han's hand gestures and the slight smile on Statura's face. It never failed to amaze Poe how two men could be so completely different and yet be such good friends. Han was a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants type of guy with a gruff exterior that was always belied by the mischievous spark in his eye; a man who Poe’s mother would laughingly call a scoundrel whenever he showed up at their home. Whereas the Admiral was buttoned down, very regimented and rarely showed emotion unless you had earned his trust enough for him to drop his guard. Han was loud and brash where Statura was quietly spoken and thoughtful but they’d been through a war together and Poe guessed that kind of experience forged bonds that overcame such big differences in personality.

“Then you’d have paid _two months_ credits to see Han’s face when the Duke’s wife asked the Admiral if she could hire Han for the night.” Snap laughed which only got louder when he saw the face Rey pulled.

“Oh, no! I don’t want to think about Han like that, he’s far too old!” She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

Chewbacca growled something and Poe chuckled. “A Silver Teek? Who called him that? Wait, let me guess... Han said it about his own self, didn’t he?”

Chewbacca nodded then sat back, looking smug, when the rest of them laughed.

Snap suddenly looked towards the door and stiffened slightly, only enough that someone sitting close to him would be able to notice. Poe gave him a subtle nod to show that he understood; it looked like Han’s contact had finally arrived.

Poe held a hand out to Rey. “Want to dance, Rey-rey?”

Rey looked surprised for a moment and then grinned. “If you think you can keep up, Dameron.”

She grabbed his hand and all but dragged him towards the small dance area situated next to two bored looking musicians and not-so-coincidentally close to Han’s table. There were a handful of other couples dancing, mostly whores in the act of seducing some of the miners who made up the majority of the cantina’s clientele, but Rey didn’t seem to care about who else was there, instead she immediately threw her arms in the air and began to sway to the music. Poe smiled at her entirely unselfconscious movements. She’d grown up as a slave on a barren, desert world where she spent every spare moment working as a scavenger so as to earn her own money and avoid beatings; she’d never even heard any music until she joined the crew of the Millennium Falcon and she’d certainly never danced before. It had quickly become one of her favourite things and, even if she wasn’t as elegant or coordinated at it as other people, she was definitely enthusiastic. Poe liked to encourage her to dance whenever he could. Of course, the fact that he could now keep an eye on the deal happening at Han and the Admiral’s table from a closer vantagepoint didn’t hurt.

Han caught his eye and deliberately leaned back further in his seat; a gesture that meant ‘it’s going well but stay close just in case’.

Poe spun Rey around in a full circle. “I think we might actually get paid this time,” he murmured into her ear and she slapped his arm.

“Don’t jinx it, Poe!” She said with a mock-frown. "You know better than to say something like that!"

Poe shrugged and gave her a cheeky smile. "Yeah, well, I like living on the edge."

"And I like having credits in my pocket," Rey shot back even as Poe grabbed her hand to stop her accidentally hitting one of the whores.

He heard a loud snort of amusement from behind them and turned them both around enough to see that Snap and Chewbacca had now moved from their table to lounge against the bar instead, even closer to Han's table than Poe and Rey were. Snap was looking particularly entertained by Rey's exuberant dancing, as were several of the other cantina patrons Poe suddenly noted. Even the bored musicians had perked up and were now playing a faster tune for Rey to kick her legs in time with.

With Snap and Chewbacca in place and the deal still appearing to be going well, Poe decided that he could maybe take this opportunity to let his hair down and have some fun. He raised an enquiring eyebrow at Snap and waited until the other man nodded back. Then he threw himself into whatever crazy dance Rey had just made up, trusting Snap to keep an eye on Han's table for them. As a result they were both out of breath and grinning inanely by the time Han slapped a hand down on Poe's shoulder a fair while later.

"Are you both done cavorting?" He asked dryly. "Because I'd like to get out of here and to do that, I need a pilot and an engineer without any self-inflicted injuries."

Glancing quickly around the cantina, Poe saw that the contact had already left. "It's done? With no blaster fire?"

Han removed his hand from Poe's shoulder only to smack him lightly across the back of his head instead. "Very funny. I should've left you with your dad; no matter how much he begged me to take you off his hands."

Poe laughed; it was an old taunt, one that he was very used to and also only partly true.

It had been Poe begging Han to let him join the Falcon's crew when he was a small child who thought that his parent's friends Han and Chewbacca were brilliant and their ship was the best thing in the whole galaxy; even better than his mum’s old beat-up A-Wing. He'd even tried to stow away in the cargo hold a few times when he was very young but Chewbacca always managed to find him and carry him back home before the Falcon took off. It took until Poe was a teen for him to realise that, no matter how likeable the man was, a large amount of Han’s work was illegal and if he did join his crew he’d be turned into a fugitive.

Then Poe's mother had died and her loss had shattered the family. Poe turned from a mischievous, happy child into an angry, sullen young man who hated everything that reminded him of his mum, especially anything to do with spaceships and flying. He fell in with a group of delinquents and developed a knack for getting into trouble. The last time that Poe was arrested by the Sheriff, this time for being drunk and disorderly, instead of Poe's dad coming to bail him out as usual, Han showed up. It was the first time in years that Poe had seen him and he basically offered Poe an ultimatum; either join the crew of the Falcon, learn how to break the law properly and ' _not get caught every single time, for Force's sake'_ or stay in jail the next time because Poe's family was done bailing him out.

Even though he hadn't had much of a choice, going with Han had been the best decision of Poe's life. It was a weird thing to think considering that decision had led him into a life of crime, being on the run more often than not and being shot at on a fairly regular basis.

Back on the Falcon, he settled into his seat in the cockpit and patted the console reverently before pressing the buttons needed to fire up the ship using a pattern that he knew as well as his own name.

"Where to this time?" He asked Han, who had settled into the seat beside him. "More thrilling crime to commit?"

Han snorted. "I think that one caper a week is enough. I'm not as young as I used to be, you know?"

"Feeling your age, Silver Teek? Maybe you should take a break and let us youngsters plan the next heist," Snap said as he walked into the cockpit, followed by Statura. "I heard about a job on one of the Central Planets. It would be real easy; in, out and no-one the wiser."

Han stared at Snap with narrowed eyes for a moment before pointing at Chewbacca who was hovering around outside the door. "Firstly, stop telling everyone the things I tell you in confidence. I was just trying the name out, is all."

Chewbacca made an entirely unrepentant noise and rolled his eyes. Poe covered his laugh with a cough when Han turned his glare on him and busied himself with the whole flying them out of orbit thing.

"And secondly," Han continued. "We don't take jobs on the Central Planets. How many times do I have to tell you that?"

Snap rolled his eyes at Han's rebuke. " _You_ don't take jobs there, old man. But the rest of us don't have a hoity toity ex-wife that we're scared of, stopping us from getting all the decent paying jobs that they have there."

Poe groaned inwardly, Snap had never hidden the fact that he thought Han was crazy for not taking the more lucrative jobs they got offered in the New Republic capital but he'd never been quite so confrontational about it before. He’d clearly had more to drink than Poe had realised.

"You don't like being on this crew then you know where the door is," Han all but snarled at Snap, all good feeling dissipated at the mention of his ex-wife...or still his current wife; Poe was never quite sure of the status of Han and Leia's relationship and definitely didn't want to ask.

"I never said anything about not liking this crew but you know what I _would_ like? Getting paid more than once in every four jobs!" Snap retorted and now that he was looking out for it, Poe could hear his words slur ever so slightly.

“Alright, that’s enough,” Statura smoothly interrupted. “We have been paid for _this_ job and the rest we’ll discuss tomorrow. Snap, go and sleep it off.”

For a moment Snap looked like he was going to protest but instead threw his hands up in disgust and stomped out of the room, almost knocking over Rey who had just arrived.

“Whoa, what...?” Rey stared after Snap and then looked at the rest of them. “We were all happy not ten minutes ago. What did you do?”

Rey hadn’t directed the question at any one of them in particular but Han huffed.

“What makes you think it was me? ... Besides, he started it,” he protested. “Try calling Leia ‘hoity toity’ to her face and then see who’s scared of her...” he added in a mutter.

“Snap’s just had a bit too much to drink, that’s all,” Poe told her over Han’s continued mutterings. “You know that makes him a little excitable. He’ll be back to normal tomorrow.”

Rey didn’t look placated though and put her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at Han. “Was this about the heist in the Hosian System? You shot him down before he even had a chance to explain it, didn’t you?”

“We don’t take jobs on the Central Planets,” Han grit out. “What are you even doing in here? The last I checked you were an engineer, not a pilot. I can hear the engine protesting over something from here so go and do your job before you get us all killed!”

Not intimidated in the slightest, Rey stepped forward and poked Han in the chest; hard, judging from Han’s wince. “Do not imply that I’m bad at my job. The engine’s protesting because she needs a new compression coil. Which you already know because I’ve been asking you to buy one for weeks now. If the engine blows and kills us all then it’s on your head, not mine, Han Solo!”

With that Rey stormed out of the room and Poe could hear her banging and clanging all the way down to the engine room where he knew she had a spare bedroll set up. She tended to sleep there if she was upset; she said that the noise of the engine soothed her.

“Well...” Statura broke the uncomfortable silence after a few minutes. “Tempers seem to be running a little high tonight. I think I’ll turn in before I incur someone’s wrath myself.”

“Sleep well, Admiral,” Poe said and the older man patted his shoulder before he took his leave.

The fading sound of Statura’s cane against the floor as he headed to the crew’s quarters and Chewbacca’s normal heavy breaths were the only sound in the cockpit for a while until Poe couldn’t take the tension anymore.

“I do love these celebrations after a successful job,” he finally commented in as casual a manner as he could manage.

Han snorted and rolled his eyes. “I swear having a crew is more trouble than it’s worth. Especially when there are more arguments after the good heists than there are for the ones where we’re left running for our lives with nothing to show for it.”

Poe chuckled. “But your life would be so much less exciting without us in it. Not to mention that you and Chewie would have to pilot this old girl and look after her engines by yourselves. There _is_ a reason that you hired the rest of us.”

“You think that I can’t fly this ship by myself?” Han demanded to know, apparently still a bit ornery after the earlier arguments.

“I think that you’ve reached the age where you ‘ _don’t have to bust your hump doing all the work by yourself and can pass on your wisdom and experience to the younger generation’_. Isn’t that what you told me?”

Han frowned. “I really said that? Had I been drinking?”

Chewbacca growled in the affirmative from the adjoining room where he was playing a holo game.

Han made a rude gesture at him and then returned to studying the stars before them. He sighed loudly before telling Poe, “Set a course for Jakku.”

“I was beginning to think that I was going to have to keep flying around aimlessly all night until you decided.” Poe said before he raised his eyebrows. “Jakku though? Really?”

“Rule number three, Poe: always apologise to a woman, they tend to hold a grudge.”

Poe squinted. “I thought rule three was the one about Twi’leks baring gifts...”

Han waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “Rule four then. The point is that Rey is going to bang about in that damn engine room until it actually drives me crazy so it’s best to just make it up to her sooner rather than later.”

“You could just apologise to her,” Poe pointed out with Chewbacca’s agreement from the other room.

“I could,” Han admitted. “Or I could take her to Jakku to buy a new compression coil and let her lord it over that sleemo, Plutt.”

“Yeah, that would work too,” Poe agreed with a smile.

It was always fun to watch Plutt try to hide his anger at having to grovel to one of his former slaves in order to get her to buy an item from him at an agreeable price. And Shiraya knew that it always put an extra spring in Rey’s step when she had the chance to rub her new status in her old owner’s face.

“If we’re really not going out on another job anytime soon,” Poe began, hopefully. “Maybe we could have some downtime in Tuanul? It would be nice to see some friendly faces and have a home cooked meal for a change.”

“Tuanul, huh? That thought hadn’t even occurred to me,” Han replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Good idea, kid.”

Poe sighed. “That’s what you planned to do all along, isn’t it?”

“And everyone thinks that you’re just a pretty face, Dameron.” Han chuckled. “Don’t tell Rey we were already heading there though, it kind of spoils the whole making it up to her thing.”

With that Han headed to his quarters, leaving Poe to input the co-ordinates to Jakku and make the jump to hyperspace. Chewbacca played another couple of holo games before he too turned in for the night and only Poe was left. He slouched down in his chair and smiled in satisfaction. There was nothing quite like piloting the Falcon through death defying and impossible seeming moves that had the adrenaline pumping and the heart pounding. But there was definitely something to be said about the quiet moments too; the times when the rest of the crew were asleep and it was just Poe and the ship, her soft vibrations soothing Poe and helping him feel at peace with the galaxy.

It would take them almost half a day to reach Jakku so after a couple of hours of peaceful contemplation of nothing in particular, Poe left the Falcon on autopilot and went to grab a good night’s sleep of his own. Stumbling into the kitchen the next morning, still half asleep with curls sticking up from his head in every which direction, he found the rest of the crew already tucking into their breakfasts.

“Someone get our pilot a coffee before he falls over his own feet and _that hair_ injures one of us,” Han said, watching with an amused expression as Poe stubbed his toe on a chair leg and then collapsed into said chair with a groan.

Needless to say, Poe was not a morning person.

He mumbled something that he hoped resembled a thank you when a steaming mug of hot coffee was placed in front of him. It took until he drained the second mug before he was able to lift his head to try to participate in breakfast like a normal person.

“Better?” Rey asked with smirk and Poe nodded even as he refilled his mug a third time.

He noted that Rey was looking very chipper which meant that Han must have already told her that they were on their way to Jakku.

“Not at talking stage yet though,” Snap observed. “You know, I think that this is my favourite time of day, when Poe Dameron is actually quiet.”

Poe sent him a glare but couldn’t disagree, about the talking part anyway. It usually took until the end of his third coffee of the morning before he could form actual words instead of grunts. Han had been heard to grumble that it cost more to keep the Falcon stocked up with enough coffee to have a working pilot than it was to pay Poe in the first place.

Snap was undeterred by Poe’s grumpiness and instead served up a plate of the breakfast and nudged it across the table to Poe who gratefully grabbed it when his stomach gave a loud rumble. He gave a moan of appreciation when he took a bite and realised that he was eating Iktotch toast and it had actual freeze-dried zoochberries with it. That meant that Snap had cooked breakfast this morning even though it wasn’t his turn, no doubt intending it to act as an apology without actually apologising. Judging from the relaxed and upbeat vibe around the table, it had worked as it always did. No one could stay mad at Snap when he made his famous Iktotch toast, not even Han.

“Stars, that was good,” Poe finally managed to say after he polished off his breakfast and pushed the empty plate away from him. He glanced up at Snap with a cheeky expression. “Remind me why I broke up with you again?”

Snap snorted. “I seem to recall that I was the one to end things, fly boy; thanks to your inability to stop flirting with every single person you meet.”

Poe grabbed his chest in mock pain even when, as expected, Han and the Admiral groaned simultaneously. Chewbacca covered his ears as if he could block out the entire conversation and Rey laughed delightedly at everyone else’s reactions because Poe and Snap’s short-lived dalliance had been before she joined the crew so she hadn’t had to live through it the way the rest of them had.

“Please stop reminding us about that time you two were knocking boots,” Han protested. “That was the worst month I’ve had since the war! And I’m including the time with the worrmps!”

Statura nodded his head in fervent agreement, wincing at the memory. “I didn’t realise how well noise carried on this ship until then. It was mortifying.”

Poe and Snap smirked wickedly at each other. Something they had in common, aside from how loud they both were in bed, was an utter lack of shame when it came to sex and so they very much enjoyed taking advantage of that to torment the rest of the crew on occasion.

Before they could keep it going, however, an alarm sounded to indicate that the Falcon would soon be dropping out of lightspeed.

“Time to earn my share,” Poe commented as he got to his feet and carried his dirty plates across the room to leave in the sink.

Snap fell into step beside him as he left the kitchen area. “So just how much of a svaper was I being last night?”

Poe laughed. Snap must have been really drunk to have forgotten what happened the night before. Poe had assumed that breakfast had been an apology but it looked like it had just been a pre-emptive move until he found out what it was that he'd done.

“A pretty big one,” Poe told him as they walked down the corridor. “When we got back here you started talking about this new job you’ve found and then it all went wrong when you insulted Leia and accused Han of being scared of her.”

Snap winced and closed his eyes. “Damn! I brought up his ex? What in the name of the Great Prairie Winds was I thinking?”

“I don’t know, I’d guess that you were thinking you could goad him into taking the job,” Poe answered despite the fact that he knew the question was rhetorical. “Rey defended you though, if that helps. You talked to her about the job beforehand?”

“Yes, I wanted to run the idea passed someone before I brought it up to the rest of the crew,” Snap shrugged.

Poe paused just outside the entryway to the cockpit. “And you didn’t come to me? I think I’m hurt.”

Snap rolled his eyes at Poe’s mock-injured tone. “You were busy flirting with that barmaid, if I recall.”

Making an exasperated sound, Poe threw his arms up in protest. “I wasn’t... I do not flirt with everyone I meet. I just talk to them. That's just how I talk to people!”

“I know,” Snap said with a small chuckle as he turned to walk back the way they’d come now that he had his answers. “That’s what was always so annoying about it.”

The Falcon dropped out of hyperspace a few hours away from Jakku. One of the first things Han had taught Poe was that you had a better chance of avoiding a run in with the authorities in any given sector, be it the New Republic or the First Order, if you dropped out far enough away from a planet to see if someone else was orbiting it without getting immediately spotted yourself. 

Nothing untoward immediately popped up on the radar so Poe didn't need to deviate from the original course to the small desert planet. He took the opportunity to run to the refreshers and grab a sonic shower; from experience he knew that was the best way to stave off the sweat and grime that he would inevitably accrue on Jakku, for as long as possible. He got back to the cockpit in time to catch the end of Han's holocom to Lor San Tekka, the unofficial leader of the settlement of Tuanul and another old war buddy of Han's.

"Everything clear?" Poe asked when he slid into his seat.

Han nodded as the light blue projection disappeared. “He’s a little concerned about a couple of mercs that were poking about recently but I checked the register and there ain’t nothing about Tuanul or even Jakku on there.”

The community of thieves and smugglers was a strange thing. Most ships would steal a job out from under another ship before they could even blink but they still had a code; they still watched each other’s backs to a certain extent. That’s why the registry was created. Poe wasn’t exactly sure how it started, although he had a feeling that Han and Chewie had been somehow involved, but he did know that pirate queen, Maz Kanata was in charge of it now. Basically, if any ship heard a rumour that another ship or group of similarly inclined outlaws had a price on their head then that rumour went into the registry in order to give the crew a heads up that someone was on their trail.

Despite the fact that Tuanul was actually a religious settlement established for the followers of the Church of the Force, they were known to offer safe harbour to some less than lawful types in return for much needed supplies. Although Poe had always believed the fact that a fair amount of the church’s followers had fought in the galactic war had more to do with their willingness to help smugglers and thieves than anything else, because many ex-soldiers had ended up on the wrong side of the law once the war ended; Statura was a prime example of that. Trying to live a normal life was hard after the war and people got by however they could. The church understood that and their willingness to help was why any rumours about the village also wound up on Maz’s register.

“Is he sure they were after someone in the village?” Poe asked. “The rest of Jakku isn’t exactly a model of lawfulness. The mercs could have just wandered in the wrong direction. Most of them aren’t known for their smarts.”

Han stared out of the viewfinder thoughtfully for a moment. “You’re probably right but it won’t hurt to have the ship ready to leave if we need to make a swift exit.”

“What about Rey’s repairs?”

With a wince Han said, “She’ll have to put them off...just until we get the lay of the land. She can still buy a new compression coil but she’ll have to wait to install it; the last thing we need is to be caught with our pants down.”

Poe nodded; he’d expected an answer like that. Han had always been extra wary when it came to dealing with mercenaries. Poe’s dad had once told him that Han had had a bad experience with one merc in particular during the war but Poe didn’t know the details. All he knew was that Han’s paranoia had worked out in their favour on more than one occasion so he’d back his captain on this one.

He landed the Falcon behind a large outcropping of rocks a small walk from the village. It wouldn’t hide the ship if someone was actively looking for it but it was hidden well enough that they could make a sneaky exit, if they needed to. Rey also put the engines into low power mode rather than turning them off completely.

Once that was all done, they grabbed the extra supplies they always tried to keep in stock for occasions such as this and headed into Tuanul for some well-earned R&R.

After a full day of reuniting with old friends, exchanging gifts and eating enough notha broth to last a lifetime, Poe found himself sitting beside a bonfire in the centre of the village so as to keep the cold of the Jakku night at bay. Han and Rey were sitting off to one side, surrounded by a group of young children. Han was telling stories to the kids who all sat in silence, enraptured by whatever Han was telling them, only to scream and then laugh delightedly when Chewbacca jumped out at them, with a loud roar, during the appropriate moment of the tales. Rey would never admit it but she was clearly just as invested in the stories as the children were, having never experienced this type of storytelling during her childhood. It was why no-one ever teased her when she jumped just as high as the children did when Chewbacca appeared.

Snap was on the opposite side of the bonfire to Poe and had two pretty traders hanging on his every word. He may tease Poe about his unintentional flirting but Snap was in a league of his own when it came to attracting a willing bed partner. He may not be much to look at when compared to some other guys but when he turned that charm on and focussed his entire attention on you then Snap suddenly became the most attractive man in the room. Poe could attest to that and he laughed to himself as he watched both women elegantly get to their feet to draw Snap off in the direction of the dwellings.

Poe dragged his attention back to the conversation happening next to him when Lor San Tekka topped up his mug of Knockback Nectar.

“Drink up, boy. We’ll put some hair on that chest yet!” Tekka slapped Poe on the shoulder before leaning forward to refill Statura’s mug too.

Statura’s eyes twinkled with mischief as he said, “This is Kes Dameron’s son we’re talking about here. He’s likely to pass out after three mugfuls, just like his old man.”

“Hey!” Poe protested but had to admit to himself that the Admiral had a point about his dad. Kes Dameron’s inability to hold his liquor was infamous.

Tekka barked out a laugh. “Unless he takes after his mother, of course. There weren’t many people who could drink Shara Bey under the table before she became a respectable mother instead of a hot shot pilot.”

Poe returned the toast Tekka made when he spoke of Poe’s mum and grinned. Now that the grief of losing his mum was a manageable ache rather than a raw wound, he loved to hear stories of her and his dad when they’d fought for the Alliance. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed stopping at Tuanul where a number of the settlers had actually known and fought beside them. That and a good, hot meal which didn’t come from a ship’s dispenser.

As if able to read his thoughts, a small spherical droid nudged Poe’s thigh like it was reminding him that it was still there and also a good reason to visit Tuanul. Poe smiled and patted the droid affectionately.

“That BB unit’s always had a real soft spot for you,” Tekka noted, looking at BB8 thoughtfully.

It was true. Ever since his first visit to Tuanul, about a standard month after joining the crew of the Falcon, BB8 had become a near constant shadow for Poe whenever he was in the village. That first visit, Poe had stumbled across the droid working inside one of the dwellings and been able to hear the sand grinding through its inner mechanisms. He'd still been under the ban from drinking that Han had imposed on him for his first few jobs, thanks to the drunk and disorderly arrest, and so hadn’t particularly wanted to join the group around the bonfire. For lack of anything else to do, he’d cleaned the sand out of BB8, just like he used to do with the mud in his grandmother’s ancient gonk droid. Apparently, that act had earned him a friend for life.

“It’s hardly the first time that we’ve seen a droid make a strong attachment to one human in particular,” Statura murmured and Tekka nodded in agreement.

Poe glanced between them both in confusion but shrugged internally, he’d learned to roll with the various references to a past history that he wasn’t a part of.

Instead he turned back to BB8. “It’s not BB’s fault that it can’t resist my considerable charms. Besides it likes Rey just as much as it likes me these days.”

BB8 trilled in reply and Poe laughed. “I’ll have you know that I’m much prettier than her.”

Tekka snorted. “And not the first time we’ve seen a droid with an attitude.”

Statura laughed as well and the two older men began reminiscing about some of the droids they’d had to deal with during the rebellion. Poe took a sip of the nectar and settled in to listen to tales of battle droids who were sometimes more of a hilarious hindrance than a help. Han, Chewie and Rey joined them after the children had all been put to bed and the small group talked and drank until late into the night, warmed by the fire and the camaraderie.


	2. Chapter 2

Camaraderie was in short supply aboard the Star Destroyer _Finalizer_ ; at least as far as FN-2187 was concerned. He’d already felt more and more ostracised by his squad since they’d finished training and joined the star ship. But ever since he’d hesitated during their first real mission; paused, unable to obey the order given to open fire on a handful of striking miners, the squad had pulled back further. Even Slip, who was the closest thing to what FN-2187 could call an ally. FN-2187 should have been annoyed at that, after all the times he’d helped Slip and gone back for him when he should have kept going like Captain Phasma had trained them to do, but instead of being angry he found that he couldn’t blame Slip for his reaction. Obviously there was something wrong with _him_. The First Order was all and FN-2187 should be able to follow an order immediately and without equivocation; if the First Order wanted those miners dead then they had obviously done something to deserve it.

But when faced with actual people instead of the simulations he’d been trained on, he’d been unable to pull the trigger.

FN-2187 knew that Captain Phasma had noticed and as a result, she‘d be keeping a much closer eye on him in their current mission. If he failed again then he’d likely become one of the many Troopers who were ordered to face an evaluation with the psych department and then never returned. So he couldn’t fail again, that much was obvious. The thing was he didn’t think that he could succeed either. After that disastrous mission, he’d Forced himself to spend all his free time on the gun range going through simulation after simulation but the same thing happened every time; he just couldn’t shoot at people who were unarmed or appeared to be ordinary, everyday civilians and, ultimately, he ended up not being able to shoot at anyone at all.

For the first time in his life, FN-2187 was genuinely scared and he had no idea what to do. 

As the transport that FN-2187 and the rest of his squad were currently standing in broke into the planet’s atmosphere there was a small bump which resulted in some quiet and scattered laughter, mostly from the veteran Troopers who’d been through this many times before. Phasma cleared her throat ominously and they soon stopped, turning their attention back to the mission in hand.

There had been a small briefing before the Troopers got onto the single transporter. They were orbiting the planet of Jakku because they had received word that a small settlement there was harbouring a known traitor to the First Order; a Dandoran female known as Jessika Pava. The Dandoran was to be brought in alive but if anyone else got in their way then they were to be considered hostile and should be dealt with accordingly. Phasma then added that the community harbouring the Dandoran was a religious settlement so they shouldn’t expect much of a fight; which FN-2187 supposed was the reason that only one transport had been sent.

That final statement had elicited a few disappointed groans from FN-2187’s troop, who had been itching to get some ‘real action’, and FN-2187 had been shocked to feel a wave of resentment towards them for that.

There was the familiar sensation of the transport coming to a smooth landing accompanied by the whirring of engines dying down, before the front of the transport lowered to become a ramp. At Phasma’s command the Troopers marched, as one, out of the transporter and onto sand. The settlement was in front of them; quiet in the pre-dawn except for some farm animals and a small orange and white droid. FN-2187 watched as it put on a sudden burst of speed and rolled into one of the dwellings. There was a dying fire in the centre of the village which lent everything a soft glow and the scene would be peaceful if not for the Stormtroopers now lining up in front of it.

“Bring her in alive,” Phasma reiterated and at her hand signal, the Troopers headed for the dwellings.

Before they reached the first dwelling, the whine of blasters warming up brought the Troopers to a halt. As FN-2187 watched, several of the settlers stepped out of their dwellings with guns trained on the Troopers. The sensors in FN-2187’s visor told him that there were more settlers inside the buildings watching them from the various windows. Apparently, their arrival hadn’t been as much of a surprise ambush as the First Order had been expecting.

“The First Order has no jurisdiction here,” an older, grizzled looking man holding a modified blaster said. “What business do you have with The Church of the Force?”

Captain Phasma stepped forward, her cape fluttering a little in the slight breeze. “We do not need jurisdiction in the pursuit of a traitor and murderer. Give us the Dandoran, Jessika Pava and we will leave you in peace.”

The old man raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise. “Jessika Pava is no murderer. She’s also not here; she left three days ago. Our teachings didn’t agree with her, you see.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for that,” Phasma replied and raised her hand as if to signal again but paused when a couple more armed settlers exited the dwellings.

“No, _you’ll_ have to forgive _us_ if we refuse to let you violate our sacred grounds,” the old man said. “I suggest that you leave now and don’t come back.”

FN-2187 was standing directly behind Captain Phasma so he was able to see the slight rise of her shoulders as she gave a small sigh.

Without turning to face the troopers she said in a firm voice, “The order about the Dandoran still stands. Kill everyone else.”

The Stormtroopers immediately opened fire and FN-2187 stood there in shock. These people clearly didn’t deserve to die; they were just trying to protect their church and their way of life.

He snapped out of his trance when a bolt of blaster fire whizzed past him, a little too close for comfort. There was the sickening noise of the blaster fire hitting a live target behind him and FN-2187 spun on the spot to see Slip fall to the floor, his chest a mess of burnt flesh, blood and melted armour. Without thinking, FN-2187 dropped to one knee beside his fallen comrade, his hands itching to do something, _anything_ , to help but he knew that it was a lost cause; Slip’s injuries were just too severe. Instead he grabbed Slip’s hand and tried to at least offer a bit of comfort in his final moments. Slip reached up for FN-2187’s helmet - maybe to try and push FN-2187 into getting help or maybe he was attempting to rap the helmet with his knuckles the way they sometimes did to each other after having a training exercise - but whatever the reason, Slip’s strength left him and he only succeeded in smearing his blood down the front of the helmet before he gave one final shudder and died right there, holding FN-2187’s hand.

It took another near miss with some blaster fire to push FN-2187 into moving away from Slip’s body. Ducking low, he ran for the nearest dwelling and plastered himself to the side of it, sheltered from any further blaster fire for the moment. Slip's blood obscured FN-2187's visor so he completely removed his helmet and took the opportunity to survey the small battle.

There were clearly more villagers than the First Order had expected and they were far better armed than simple farmers and church folk were expected to be. A flash of orange and white caught his eye and he saw the same spherical droid that he’d spotted earlier. This time the droid was circling around the legs of a curly haired man who was currently shooting at FN-2187’s colleagues with a look of intense concentration on his face. As if he could sense that he was being watched, the man turned to look in FN-2187’s direction but instead of shooting at him, the man just tilted his head curiously.

A stray blaster bolt suddenly hit the top of the dwelling that FN-2187 was sheltering besides, causing plaster and stones to rain down on the young Trooper. There was no time to wonder about the curly haired man anymore, FN-2187 had to move before the building collapsed on top of him. There was no way that he could return to the fire fight so he was left with only one option. He ran. He took a deep breath, focussed on an outcropping of rocks beyond the village and ran towards it as if his life depended on it; which, of course, it absolutely did.

Luckily, it seemed that no one had time to pay attention to one lone Stormtrooper minus his helmet running out into the desert like a fool, so FN-2187 managed to reach his destination without anyone shooting at him. He ducked behind the rocks then collapsed into the sand, lungs burning but head light with relief that he'd finally managed to do _something_ to help himself, even if that something was abandoning everything he knew.

He allowed himself a couple of minutes to catch his breath and blamed the adrenaline still coursing through his veins that it took that long to notice the ship. His training told him that it was an old YT-1300 freighter and it barely looked space worthy; but it had to be, why else would it be hidden here? If it was ready to be junked or even if it was broken but in the midst of repairs then there would be no reason to hide it. No, it had to be here in case of emergencies. Emergencies such as the fight that was still going on in the village.

For a brief moment FN-2187 considered trying to steal the ship and get the hell away from this planet and anything associated with the First Order. But he was a ground trooper, he had no idea how to fly the thing even if he could get inside; he very much doubted that there would be a book of instructions handily lying around in there. He was still pondering the ship and whether he should just forget about it and keep running towards the next settlement - there had to be another one on this planet, surely - when he heard the sound of voices headed in his direction. The First Order, it had to be. They'd finished wiping out the village and were now coming for him. FN-2187's eyes darted around him desperately; he couldn't run now, they'd see him. Instead he threw himself towards a small crevice he'd just spotted in the rocks, wedging himself as far into it as he could, and then held his breath.

Instead of the expected Stormtroopers, FN-2187 watched as a group of settlers rounded the outcropping. Four of them were supporting a clearly unconscious wookie between them and FN-2187 blinked in surprise when he realised that the curly haired man from earlier was among them.

"Rey, get the ramp down," one of the men barked out. "We need to get him to the medbay before he wakes up and realises he's been shot!"

A young girl darted forward and hit a seemingly ordinary panel on the side of the ship causing a ramp to lower. This Rey person then ran back to the group.

"Where's Snap? Has anyone seen him?" she asked, a touch of panic threading through her voice.

The curly haired man grunted a little under the weight of the wookie as they began to walk up the ramp. "He's right behind us with the Dandoran traders!"

FN-2187 was surprised again. Not only were these settlers still alive but the Dandoran hadn't even been captured yet? What had happened back in the village?

At that moment, another man ran around the outcropping along with two females - one of whom FN-2187 recognised as the Dandoran that his troop had been ordered to capture - and the old man who had confronted the Stormtroopers when they arrived. The now familiar orange and white droid wasn't far behind them. The new man, who must be Snap, rushed forward and also grabbed hold of the wookie.

He then used his foot to tap the back of the curly haired man's calf. "Go! Get us off this rock, we've got Chewie!"

The curly haired man nodded and then carefully stepped away from the wookie, apparently making sure not to dump that extra weight on the other men and Rey too suddenly, before he ran into the ship.

At that point FN-2187 turned his attention back to the Dandorans. The one that FN-2187 didn't recognise was hugging the old man goodbye while Jessika Pava looked angry at everything and everyone.

"I can't just run away and let you take the heat for me, Tekka," she was insisting but Tekka just patted her arm.

"Do I look like a naive, old fool to you, Jess?" He asked, not unkindly. "I've faced down more Imperial officers than you've had hot keela and I know what I’m doing. We've had an escape route set out since we first put down roots on this planet."

Pava looked unconvinced but Tekka just smiled at her. "We caught those First Order dogs by surprise and while they regroup and wait for reinForcements, we will take to the tunnels beneath the settlement. By the time they realise that we've gone, we'll already be at the Niima Outpost and the ships we have stashed there."

FN-2187 frowned, almost unable to believe that the small village had driven back an entire squadron of Stormtroopers; there was obviously more to these people than met the eye. Tekka was right, there would definitely be reinForcements on the way from the _Finalizer_ and not just a couple more squads; the First Order would want to make an example of this small settlement that fought back against them and FN-2187 knew that Tuanul would be razed to the ground by the end of the day. He wanted to step forward out of his hiding place and warn Tekka of that but FN-2187 was a Stormtrooper, one of the very Troopers that had attacked their village, they would probably shoot first and ask questions later. Besides, it seemed that Tekka already understood what to expect from the First Order.

With a sigh, Pava nodded in acknowledgement of what Tekka was telling her and she, along with the other Dandoran, turned and walked onto the ship just as the engines fired up.

Tekka watched them go before glancing down at the droid next to him. "I don't believe that you'll be of much use to me during what comes next."

The droid let out a trill of beeps and Tekka held up his hand placatingly. "I don't doubt your ability, little one. But I fear you will fall behind in the upcoming chaos and I couldn't, in good conscious, risk the life of one of the church in order to retrieve you. Go with Poe; he'll be your new master and he will take good care of you until we meet again."

"Poe's ready to go, I have to close the doors," Rey cut into the conversation and FN-2187 glanced up at her in surprise; he'd never even heard her return to the top of the ramp. "Tekka, come with us."

Tekka grinned at her. "And miss all the fun here? My place is leading my flock to safety and yours is getting Jessika out of harm’s way." He looked down at the droid. "Go on, then. Join your new crew."

The droid let out another, longer, series of beeps and boops before rolling up the ramp to Rey. Tekka waved a hand in farewell before turning and heading back to the village. Rey watched him for a long moment and then sighed and turned away herself.

The mechanical sound of the ramp beginning to lift spurred FN-2187 into motion. As he saw it, he had three options open to him: he could keep running further into the desert, resulting in a probable capture and execution by the First Order for being a traitor. He could follow the villagers into the tunnels in an attempt to get to this Niima Outpost that Tekka had mentioned and probably get shot on the spot by one of the villagers for being a member of the First Order. Or he could get on that ship, hide in the cargo hold until they reached a new planet and hope that they didn’t find him and kill him first.

The ramp had started to rise so FN-2187 jumped out of his hidey hole and sprinted towards the ship. He managed to grab hold of the edge of the ramp and pulled himself up and into the nearly empty cargo hold of the freighter. He stepped forward and then winced as his boots clanged loudly against the metal floor; stormtrooper armour was not made for stealth. Also, why did the cargo hold have to be nearly empty? It was going to make it much more difficult to hide.

He heard footsteps heading in his direction, no doubt belonging to someone who heard his less than graceful scramble onto the ship, and dived for the nearest crate. The lid of the crate hadn’t been closed properly so he shunted it further open then scrambled inside before pulling the lid back closed as much as he could while lying at such a weird angle.

The footsteps entered the cargo hold and FN-2187 froze, barely breathing lest he give away his hiding place. The footsteps stopped not far from the crate FN-2187 was hiding in and there was a long moment of silence before he heard a soft hum of confusion and the footsteps retreated again. He waited until the noise entirely faded away before he breathed a big sigh of relief then immediately gagged because, Mother of Kwath, what was in that crate with him that smelled so bad? It smelled like the trash compactors of a ship after a _very_ long mission.

Once his gag reflex was back under control, FN-2187 carefully climbed back out of the crate and ducked down behind it. Judging from the sounds and vibrations of the ship, they had already broken orbit. FN-2187 hoped that the pilot of this thing was good enough to avoid the _Finalizer_ but in the meantime he took the opportunity to strip out of his armour; if he was going to avoid being found then he would need to be as quiet as possible and it would be easier to do that in just his body suit.

When the final piece of his armour was removed, FN-2187 felt like a weight had been lifted from him. After all those weeks of stress and worry about the First Order discovering his traitorous thoughts, he had done the unthinkable, the impossible; he’d left the First Order. And he’d never felt so good. He allowed himself a moment to bask in that feeling and then fell back into his soldier’s mentality because that was the only thing he had that would get him through this. Obviously, the first thing he’d have to do is hide the armour. Then he’d have to try and find a way to sneak around this ship; if he stayed in just one place then he’d definitely be discovered, or he’d starve to death because there was no way that he was going to eat whatever was in that crate. He’d have to call on all his stealth skills, he’d have to be loth-cat-like at all times, he'd have to...

A familiar trilling of beeps sounded right next to FN-2187 and made him jump about a foot in the air before landing on his ass. The orange and white droid sat next to him, continuing to beep loudly.

“No, no, no... shush,” FN-2187 tried even as he looked around for a new hiding place. He couldn’t understand what the droid was saying but he could guess. “I’m not with the First Order, I swear; I just needed a way off that planet.”

The droid tilted his head, seeming to consider what FN-2187 was saying, and giving him a glimmer of hope, before a small hatch opened on its side and it zapped FN-2187 with a telescoping arm.

“Ow! Hey!” Finn protested. “I told you I’m just...Ow! Stop it!”

The droid continued to zap FN-2187 and the ex-Trooper continued to slide backwards across the cargo hold floor, trying to get out of its range, until the back of his head hit something soft but solid. FN-2187 looked up only to see Rey looming over him with a dangerous glint in her eye and a wicked looking staff in her hand.

“Going somewhere, Stormtrooper?” She hissed at him then raised her staff.

FN-2187 jumped to his feet, hopping a little when the droid zapped him again.

“What was the plan, huh?” Rey asked advancing on him rather menacingly considering her small stature. “Are you supposed to hide on the ship until we reach our destination then call your _masters_ to let them know where we are? Were you going to use us to capture our friend?”

“What? No!” FN-2187 exclaimed, taking a step backwards for every step she took towards him. “I’m not a Stormtrooper...”

Rey’s derisive snort and nod towards the pile of white armour on the floor interrupted his flow and he started again.

“Okay, I know it looks bad but I’m not a Stormtrooper _anymore_ , I swear. I left them. I ran away back in Tuanul and I only got on this ship to get away from them.”

“No one leaves the First Order,” Rey pointed out.

“Yes, they do. _I_ did!” FN-2187 insisted. “What they did back there...I couldn’t be a part of that. Just like I couldn’t kill those miners before. I thought it was me, you know? That I was defective and maybe I am but I can’t just kill someone that doesn’t deserve it. That’s wrong, I know it is; even if they tell me it’s right.”

Rey began frowning in the middle of FN-2187’s babbling, and he thought that maybe he was getting through to her, but then she quickly spun the staff in her hand and swept his feet out from under him. He landed hard on the floor, knocking the air out of his chest, and found himself with the business end of Rey’s staff lodged firmly against the tender area underneath his jaw.

“Rey, what in the universe is causing so much noise in...”

FN-2187 watched as an older man with a cane walked into the cargo hold, took in what was happening then dropped the cane in order to pull a blaster from his holster and point it right at FN-2187. All in a matter of seconds. FN-2187 was impressed; in fact he was pretty sure that even Captain Phasma would have been impressed by this man’s reflexes.

“He says he’s left the First Order,” Rey said to the man. “Says that he’s hiding out here to get away from them.”

“Is that right?” The man didn’t sound the least bit convinced.

“It i...” FN-2187 broke off to cough when Rey pressed her staff against his throat a little harder.

“He’s not armed that I can see,” Rey told the man.

That was true. FN-2187 had dropped his blaster in the sand besides Slip’s body and forgotten to pick it back up when he ran.

The man frowned and opened his mouth to reply to her when a huge roar sounded from further into the ship. “Sithspit! Chewbacca’s awake!”

Rey looked alarmed. “Have they managed to restrain him yet?”

The man glanced back the way he’d come and shook his head. “Not by the sounds of it.”

He looked back at FN-2187, who tried to appear as unthreatening as possible, and then heaved a big sigh. He limped to a panel on the wall; still keeping his gun trained on the ex-trooper, and opened it, retrieving some metal cuffs which he tossed to Rey.

“Put those on him,” he told Rey. “I’m not leaving him in here unsupervised so he’ll have to come with us. Han can decide what to do with him later.”

FN-2187 gratefully gulped down a couple of deep breaths once the staff was removed from his throat. He then slowly got to his feet and held his hands out in front of him when instructed; there was no point in acting difficult, that would just get him into even more trouble.

Once FN-2187 was restrained, the man lowered his gun slightly and pressed a large button next to the doorway. It was an internal communicator, FN-2187 realised when the man began to talk into it.

“Poe, be extra careful to make sure that we’re not being followed,” he said. “We’ve got ourselves a First Order stowaway and we haven’t got time to run a tracer scan on him right now.”

“I don’t have a tracer,” FN-2187 informed him, helpfully, but wasn’t surprised at the sceptical looks he got from both the man and Rey.

“A stowaway? What the varp?” A male voice crackled out of the communicator. “Is he a spy?”

The man shook his head even though this Poe that he was talking to wouldn’t be able to see it. “Don’t know yet. We’ll keep you updated, just make sure...”

“...that we don’t have anyone tailing us. Right. I can do that. Be careful down there, Admiral.”

Admiral? FN-2187 automatically straightened his back when he heard that; years of First Order training couldn’t be undone in one morning, it seemed. Even when the admiral in question wasn’t a direct superior of FN-2187 it triggered an involuntary response. The man’s sharp eyes evidently hadn’t missed that reaction and he gave a small smirk even as he assured Poe that he’d be fine. 

Rey had picked up the Admiral’s cane and handed it back him so they made a strange procession walking up the corridor; FN-2187 with his hands cuffed, Rey still occasionally poking the ex-trooper with her staff, the admiral limping with a cane in one hand and a blaster pointed at FN-2187 in the other and the droid circling around them all, ready to zap the prisoner at any moment.

“What the kriff?”

The group had barely entered what appeared to be a decent sized communal area before Jessika Pava was on her feet with her blaster pressed to FN-2187’s forehead. Strangely, instead of panicking about his impending death, a wave of calm washed over him. He closed his eyes and idly wondered if he’d have survived any longer if he’d taken one of the other two options available to him back on Jakku.

“Pava, step back and drop the weapon,” the Admiral said.

“He’s the enemy!” Pava hissed and FN-2187 didn’t have to open his eyes to know that her face was contorted in anger. “He killed our friends back there.”

FN-2187 startled a little when he heard Rey quietly say, “I’m not sure that he did.”

But evidently no one was paying any attention to her.

“We don’t execute people on this ship,” the Admiral was saying to Pava in a tone that broke no arguments and it took a moment but the pressure of the gun against his skin disappeared.

“Besides,” a new voice said. “That much blood would be a nightmare to clean up. Spacing him would be a lot more efficient.”

Finally opening his eyes again, FN-2187 took in the new man who was watching him with narrowed eyes. Over his shoulder was a window into what was obviously the med-bay where Snap was trying to wrestle the wookie onto the bed but was clearly losing.

“Spacing works for me,” Pava shrugged. “As long as he pays.”

A clean shot to the head was one thing but being thrown out into the cold of space to suffocate? That was a completely different matter and the panic that FN-2187 should have felt when Pava tried to kill him decided to make its presence felt.

He looked to the admiral. “Please, Admiral. Please, sir, I’m not a spy.”

“Sir?” the new man snorted then held his hands up when the admiral shot him a look. “My apologies, _Admiral_.”

FN-2187 knew that he’d missed something but couldn’t take the time to ponder on that when he was in danger of being spaced. Instead he continued to appeal to the Admiral.

“I’m really not a spy, sir. I’m a traitor in the eyes of the First Order and I need to get as far away from them as I can; I’m definitely not going to be contacting or giving any information to the very people who are going to try and hunt me down and execute me,” he insisted. “Just drop me off at the next planet so that I can get on a transport to the Outer Rim. You’ll never see or hear from me again.”

Jessika Pava’s Dandoran companion studied him thoughtfully. “Call me crazy but he actually sounds genuine.”

Crossing her arms across her chest Pava scowled. “He still killed back in Tuanul, Karé. He killed our friends.”

“No, I didn’t! I swear!” FN-2187 shook his head emphatically. “I froze up, I couldn’t do it! That’s why I had to run; they’ll know that I’m defective. I even left my blaster down there; I just couldn’t...those people didn’t deserve that.”

“Damn right, they didn’t!” Pava all but growled but she seemed a little less murderous towards FN-2187.

“I still say we space him,” the new man said. “I don’t need this kind of shab on my ship; we’ve got enough troubles.”

As if to emphasise this, there was a crash and another howl from inside the medbay then a table bounced off the window.

The admiral didn’t even jump at the noise, unlike the rest of them; instead he was giving the man a stern look. “Are you telling me that you’re willing to kill a man because you’re _busy_ , Captain Solo?”

Solo? _Han Solo?_ FN-2187 gaped at him. This was one of the men responsible for the downfall of the Empire?

“Don’t ‘Captain Solo’ me, _Admiral_ ,” Solo glowered right back at him. “This is my ship and if I want to space someone, I’ll damn well do it! I’ll space any one of you if you piss me off enough!”

FN-2187’s eyes widened. If Solo was willing to do that to one of his own crew then what chance did a stowaway Stormtrooper have?

“I’ve got medical training!” FN-2187 found himself shouting. “I can help the wookie!”

It wasn’t a complete lie. FN-2187 may not have had any formal medical training but he had been quietly taught a few things; he knew how to stitch up his own wounds after a particularly brutal training session and a few things besides. He’d obviously kept his knowledge secret, not wanting to get the doctor who had taught him in trouble. The First Order had no need to offer medical training to their Stormtroopers, instead they taught that any fallen colleagues were a hindrance to the mission and should be left to fend for themselves so as not to waste precious time.

The shouted proclamation had made Solo stop arguing with the Admiral to cast a speculative eye over FN-2187.

There was a second, louder, crash from the medbay which seemed to prompt Solo into nodding. “Alright, buckethead. You want to fix up Chewbacca then have at it.”

He rapped the window and signalled for Snap to leave the room then he instructed Rey to remove FN-2187’s restraints.

“You’re seriously going to let him go in there?” Pava asked. “Without anyone to watch him?”

“We’ll be watching him from here,” Solo told her with a wicked smirk. “No need to waste good entertainment when we have it.”

With that Solo shoved FN-2187 into the medbay and shut the door behind him, a loud beep indicated that the lock had been engaged. FN-2187 swallowed hard and then looked up...and up until he could see the wookie’s teeth bared at him in a snarl.

FN-2187 winced. He had a bad feeling about this.


	3. Chapter 3

Since receiving the instructions from Statura, Poe had initiated evasive manoeuvres. This basically involved dropping out of hyperspace every few minutes before entering it again but to a completely different set of coordinates. He did this a number of times; hiding behind a small moon or large pieces of space debris each time he dropped out to see if any other ships dropped out behind him. Satisfied that they weren’t being followed, Poe input the coordinates for Cyrkon and jumped back into hyperspace a final time. If Snap's traders wanted to get lost then Cyrkon was the place to do it; its main city had a lot of traffic and no one asked too many questions.

After making sure that everything was in order after that speedy exit, Poe hit autopilot and went to see what the hell was happening in the rest of the ship. He’d only taken a few steps when he heard a familiar beeping.

“BB8?” He asked when the droid came into view and began excitedly rolling back and fore in front of him. “What are you doing here?”

It took him longer than normal to understand what the droid was saying because it kept trying to tell him two things at once and they were overlapping in a somewhat disconcerting manner. Eventually, Poe managed to work out that Tekka had sent BB8 to Poe to keep it safe and also that the droid and Rey had been the ones to capture the Stormtrooper spy.

“It seems like you’ve earned your place already, buddy,” Poe told the droid who trilled happily. “Let’s go and see this spy you caught.”

He arrived in the main common area to find everyone huddled around the window into the medbay.

“Is Chewie alright?” Poe asked urgently, unable to think of another reason why everyone would be out there instead of in the room with Chewbacca.

“He’s not who you should be worried about,” Pava, the trader who'd caused all this trouble, moved to make space for Poe between her and Rey.

It took a moment for Poe to register what he was seeing; a complete stranger in a skin-tight black outfit attempting to inject something into a wookie’s arm while being thrown around the room by said wookie.

“What the...wait!” Poe leaned forward a little to get a better look at the stranger’s face. “Is that the stowaway? I saw him, back in Tuanul. He was hiding behind a building.”

Actually, Poe had noticed him even before that; it had been so strange to watch a Stormtrooper drop down beside a fallen comrade that Poe had actually tracked him as he ran to shelter behind the building, curious to see what he’d do next. He’d been really shocked to see the Trooper remove his helmet; he'd obviously known that there was a real person beneath all that armour but it had been a little jarring to see it. And then there had been that weird moment when he looked back after laying down some covering fire for Tekka to find that the Stormtrooper was watching him too.

"Really? Did you see him shoot anyone?" Rey asked quietly.

Poe tilted his head as he thought about that. "No, I didn't. I'm not sure that he even had a gun, to be honest."

His answer caused Rey to give Han a loaded look and Han to roll his eyes in response.

"Why?" Poe asked Rey. "What else did I miss?"

The other trader, Karé Kun, answered him though. "She doesn't think that he's a spy or even a normal Stormtrooper and I don’t think I do either.”

Rey nodded her head to confirm Karé's assessment. "I think he's telling us the truth and that he is just trying to escape the First Order."

Pava snorted derisively. "Are you always such a soft touch for hard luck stories on this ship?"

Rey straightened and glared at Pava. “How about we spar and I show you just how much of a soft touch I am?"

Poe smirked at the sight of Pava raising her hands defensively in the face of Rey's 'Glare of Doom' and couldn't help but point out, "Your partner agrees with her or did you miss that?"

Pava smirked right back at him. "I’m used to Karé's moments of... _sensitivity_."

She laughed but winced when Karé hit her none to gently.

"I hate to say it but I concur with the girls," Statura suddenly said and everyone looked at him in shock. "No one is that good at acting. He was genuinely scared when he talked about the First Order."

"He was genuinely scared of being spaced," Han muttered and Poe laughed.

"You threatened to space him? Really?"

Han fixed him with an annoyed look. "What's so funny about that?"

Snap snorted. "Other than the fact you threaten to space at least one of us every couple of days?"

"And I'm gonna do it, if you kids keep being so insubordinate," Han grumbled even as turned back to the window. "He is doing pretty well in there though, I'll give him that."

"What? _That's_ doing well?" Karé gave Han an incredulous look and gestured at the window which currently had the Stormtrooper's face smooshed up against it.

There was a loud squeaking noise as Chewbacca dragged the poor guy's face along the window and the rest of them watched, mesmerized by the sight. It was like a crash at a pod race; Poe just couldn't look away. Even BB8 beeped its fascination.

"He's managed to disinfect the wound," Snap finally answered Karé. "We usually have to knock Chewie out to be able to do that."

The group continued to watch the goings on in the medbay and by the time the Stormtrooper was trying to get a bandage over the injury, Han had apparently come to a decision.

"He's confined to a room until we reach Cyrkon," he told everyone. "He only leaves the room to eat and when he does, no-one is allowed to talk to him; if he _is_ a spy then we don't want him to learn any more information than he already has."

Everyone nodded their agreement with the plan and with that the entertainment was over.

“I’ll show you to the crew quarters,” Statura said to Pava and Karé. “Although I’m afraid that you will have to share.”

“Actually, we were hoping to share a room with Snap,” Karé replied, sending a sultry look in Snap’s direction.

Jessika winked at Snap before saying, “Yes, we’re good, Admiral. Thanks for the offer though.”

“Oh, R’iia’s shorts! Really?” Han looked from Karé to Jessika to a grinning Snap and back again. “You’d better keep it down this time, Wexley!”

“Or you’ll space me?” Snap asked in an innocent tone which caused Han to throw his hands up and stomp out of the room muttering about ear plugs.

Statura hurried after Han, no doubt trying to calm him down a little and put as much space between himself and the crew quarters as possible. Snap and the girls left soon after until just Poe, Rey and BB8 were left to keep an eye on their new passenger. They were still standing in front of the window and looking into the medbay where things had calmed down considerably; enough that Poe was pretty sure that the Stormtrooper had managed to get some kind of sedative into Chewbacca.

“You really don’t think he’s a spy?” Poe asked Rey and she shook her head.

“There was just something in his voice,” she told him. “He said that...he thinks he’s _defective_ for not wanting to kill people on command. He said it twice and I think he actually believes that.”

“Defective? Like a droid?” Poe turned to look at Rey who looked just as disturbed by that as he was. “Mother of Kwath, what are the First Order doing to these Troopers?”

Poe was shocked and even felt a little bit of guilt. Just as he’d never really taken the time to think that Stormtroopers had actual faces under that armour, he’d also never considered _why_ they were Stormtroopers. He guessed that he’d just assumed that they’d all bought into the crazy that the First Order was selling and signed up for the cause. But this ‘defective’ thing sounded a lot more like brain-washing.

He jumped when the Trooper rapped on the glass which was when he realised that the guy was finished and Chewbacca was snoring away on the bed.

“I guess that we’d better get him to that room,” Poe murmured, still feeling a little thrown.

Rey picked up her staff from where it had been resting against the wall, BB8 produced a nasty looking zapper from an open panel and Poe pulled his blaster from his holster but he didn’t raise the gun because he didn’t think that they’d really get any trouble from the Stormtrooper.

He unlocked the medbay door and faced the Stormtrooper who was waiting with an almost resigned look on his face.

“I’ve cleaned and dressed the wookie’s wound,” the Stormtrooper told him. “And I gave him a sedative so that he can rest and recuperate, sir.”

“That’s...umm...that’s good,” Poe replied, a bit thrown by being addressed as 'sir'. “Thank you.”

The Stormtrooper startled a little at that which confused Poe for a moment until he realised that Stormtroopers probably don’t get thanked for things very often, if at all.

“The captain says that you can stay on the ship until we reach our destination and then you’re on your own,” Rey said and the Stormtrooper stared at her with astonishment written all over his face.

“Really?” He asked. “I can stay?”

Rey continued, “You’re gonna be restricted to your room, except to eat. You’re gonna be locked in so there’ll be no wandering about the ship.”

“That’s fine!” The Stormtrooper practically yelled. “That’s great, no problem; no wandering for me, I don’t even like to wander. That is fine!”

Poe had to smother a smile at the Stormtrooper’s reaction. He could see what Rey and Statura meant now; the guy obviously couldn’t hide his emotions if he tried. A smooth, polished spy this guy was not.

The Stormtrooper was practically vibrating with excitement as Poe and Rey led him towards the crew quarters and Poe couldn’t help but wonder exactly what fate they’d just helped the guy escape from.

“So, what’s your name?” Poe asked him. He knew that Han gave orders not to talk to him but Poe was fed up of mentally referring to him as ‘Stormtrooper’ or ‘guy’.

“FN-2187,” the Stormtrooper replied and Poe blinked at him.

“What?”

Rey was frowning. “I think that’s his name.”

FN... _whatever_ nodded. “That’s the only one they gave me.”

“I...no! I’m not calling you by a damn number,” Poe said despite BB8’s little boops of protest. “And, let me tell you, you’re not going to be able to run very far from them if you keep using that. You need a proper name. Something like...”

“...Neeiv Parooorni,” Rey supplied, looking proud of herself.

“Where the varp did you get that from?” Poe asked her.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I like it; it suits him.”

BB8 agreed with her but Poe thought that was just because it was sulking over Poe’s reaction to the Stormtrooper’s name. But it was different; BB8 was a droid and the Stormtrooper was a man.

“It suits me?” The Stormtrooper didn’t look convinced and Poe didn’t blame him.

“No, it really doesn’t,” Poe assured him. “We have to give him something a little easier to remember; ease him into it.”

Rey acquiesced with tilt of her head and looked thoughtful again for a couple of moments. “How about Wilkef Nordres?”

Poe pointed a finger at her. “You are ridiculous!”

“What’s wrong with that?” She protested.

“I don’t think that one suits me either,” the Stormtrooper said.

“There you go, he doesn’t like it. Because he has ears,” Poe told Rey and ignored her huff as he tried to think of something better; which wouldn’t be hard. “FN... what do you think of Finn? That will be easy enough for you to remember, right?”

“Finn.” The Stormtrooper tried it out and then mouthed it a couple more times as if to test the feel of it in his mouth. “I like it!”

Poe nudged Rey with his shoulder. “See? Something simple.”

“I still think he looks like a Wilkef,” she told him haughtily then added grudgingly, “But I guess Finn is alright too.”

“Then Finn it is,” Finn beamed at the pair of them. “Finn. Finn, Finn, Finn. Hello, my name is Finn...”

“I think we’ve broken him,” Rey whispered to Poe as Finn continued to try out his new name all the way to the empty quarters.

Once Finn was secured in his quarters and the door locked, Rey said that she was going to check on the engines and Poe wandered back up to the cockpit. He wasn’t surprised that Han was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat; it had always been his favourite hiding place.

“Don’t worry, there are no untoward noises emerging from Snap’s room yet,” Poe informed him as he slipped into his seat and patted BB8 when it rolled into a handy space beside him.

Han groaned. “I blame _you_ , you know? If you hadn’t brought him home like a baby akk dog then we wouldn’t have this problem.”

“He brought me home, remember? _And_ you,” Poe retorted. “Then he saved both our asses.”

They had been having some R&R on a mining planet that had a couple of very well stocked cantinas. Poe and Han had indulged a little too much in celebration of a recent heist going to plan. At some point, Poe had found Snap sitting at the bar and, due to reasoning only understood by the very drunk, decided that he was Poe’s new best friend. Snap hadn’t protested, most likely because Poe bought more drinks for the both of them, and he was even good enough to assist Poe in walking back to the Falcon when he’d discovered that using his legs had become a bit problematic and Han was too drunk to help.

Unfortunately, when they reached the Falcon they discovered a small group of the cantina’s patrons had followed them, thinking that they would be easy marks and they could get themselves a new freighter. The wannabe thieves opened fire but hadn’t counted on the fact that Snap’s aim was almost as good when he was drunk as it was when he was sober; and he was a fantastic shot when he was sober. He took out the thieves in less than a minute and Han had offered him a job on the spot.

“I remember no such thing,” Han said, clearly lying. “Anyway, what’s the situation now?”

“Chewbacca’s asleep in the medbay; he’s had a sedative so he’ll be down for a few hours at least,” Poe told him. “We put Finn in one of the empty quarters and locked it down...”

“Wait,” Han held up a hand. “Who the pfassk is _Finn_?”

“The Stormtrooper,” Poe told him. “Did you know that the First Order give the Troopers designations? Just a bunch of letters and numbers and yes, BB, I know that you’ve got a designation but you’re a droid. And you have a far better designation than the one Finn had.”

BB8 beeped, mollified, but Han made a noise of frustration.

“Caraya’s soul, you _named_ the Trooper?” He asked. “We are not keeping him, Poe. He’s off the ship as soon as we get to Cyrkon.”

“I know that,” Poe replied. “But a man deserves a name.”

Han watched him with narrowed eyes. “No more talking to the Stormtrooper.”

“I won't, I promise,” Poe assured him.

The promise lasted all of four hours. 

Instead of enjoying the solitude of the cockpit the way he usually did, Poe found himself getting antsy. He tried reading and even playing that annoying new game that Rey had loaded onto his data pad but just couldn't settle; he couldn’t stop fidgeting and his thoughts kept drifting to the man they'd confined to the crew quarters. Eventually, he decided that he needed to stretch his legs and wasn't entirely surprised when he ended up in the galley scrounging a few food items; it wasn't as if the First Order had given them time to eat before the attack, after all. Then it occurred to him that Finn was probably hungry too because he'd had even more excitement than the rest of them; so, Poe grabbed a couple of extra things and headed to Finn's room.

He had fully intended on leaving the food and heading on his merry way back to the cockpit but somehow found himself taking a seat on the chair opposite the bed where Finn was sitting. There was just the one chair because that's all that would fit in the space. Way back when, the Falcon had three cabins as crew quarters for Han, Chewie and Poe but when Han had decided to take on Statura, Poe had volunteered to have a wall built in his room to cut it in half and create the extra bedroom space for the Admiral. As Snap and then Rey had been added, Han and Chewie had repeated the process with their rooms so that now there were six tiny rooms where three smallish ones had been. Nobody minded the room sizes though because they were only used for sleeping, the rest of the time people congregated in the lounge or had their own little hiding places around the ship if they needed some peace and quiet.

"I guess that you're used to larger quarters than this, huh?" Poe said before he took a bite out of the dried bluefruit which Han always kept a large stock of because it reminded him of home.

Finn watched Poe's movements before repeating them himself. He instantly pulled a face and chewed quicker.

"Not to your liking?" Poe asked, his mind already going through what else they had in the galley.

"It's...it's strong," Finn said once he'd swallowed. "Very...umm...sweet?"

The fact that was posed as a question, along with the fact that the flavour of the bluefruit wasn't actually all that strong puzzled Poe.

"What do you normally eat?" he asked.

"Protein supplement," Finn replied, sniffing at the bluefruit as if still confused by it.

Poe waited for more but apparently there wasn't any. "That's it? Just protein supplement?"

"What else would we have?" Finn seemed genuinely bewildered at the idea. "It has all the nutrients and vitamins we need to maintain a healthy body. It's efficient."

"It's also a tasteless goo," Poe pointed out. "Okay, what did you used to eat before you joined the First Order?"

"I've always been in the First Order," Finn told him distractedly, going back to studying the fruit in his hand. "I was taken from my parents when I was a child to be entered into the Stormtrooper programme. We all were."

Poe just stared at him. What? Just... _what?_ Everything that he was learning about the First Order was getting worse and worse. He knew that some people in the New Republic were worried that the First Order was going to grow and eventually rise to try overthrow the New Republic but nothing like that had happened so far. In fact, Poe didn't know all that much about them apart from the fact that they were a cut-price version of the Empire, recruiting the remains of the Empire's supporters and generally acting like bullies in the schoolyard of their own section of the galaxy. He wondered if the New Republic knew that the First Order was kidnapping and brain washing children.

"I'm sorry," he eventually managed to say.

Finn shrugged. "It wasn't bad until recently. Until I became..."

"Don't you dare say 'defective'," Poe broke in. "Rey told me that you called yourself that earlier and you're not. It's not defective to not want to kill people."

"But I shouldn't even have thought about it," Finn replied with a frown. "I should have completed my orders."

"And if you had then you might have killed me," Poe pointed out. "Or any one of my crew so forgive me if I think that you not following orders was a good thing."

Finn raised his eyebrows as he thought about that, it clearly hadn't occurred to him.

"Okay, if the bluefruit is too strong, try the tok nuts instead." Poe pointed out the correct packet. "They're a bit milder."

Again, Finn watched how Poe shelled and then ate a tok nut before repeating the process for himself. This time he took a much more tentative bite and made a surprised noise before popping the rest of it into his mouth.

"That's much nicer," he got out around his mouthful and Poe snickered at the sight.

He tossed Finn the rest of his own pack, "Here, you can finish these too. I'll stick to the fruit."

Finn enthusiastically began devouring the tok nuts, confirming Poe's assumption that he was hungry, and there was an almost companionable silence as they each polished off their food.

"Why are you being nice to me?" Finn suddenly asked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” Poe couldn’t help but chuckle at the highly sceptical look Finn gave him at that. “Okay, I was curious about you and also feeling a little bored after all the earlier craziness. Then I got hungry and that all combined into me coming here.”

Finn nodded. “Okay, that explains why you’re here _now_ but what about the other stuff? What about...the name? Why did you give me _a name_?”

Poe could hear the undercurrent of emotion in Finn’s voice and suddenly realised just how much of a big deal that was to the other man.

“That really was because it’s the right thing to do,” he told Finn with a smile. “Everyone deserves a name.”

Finn gave him a tentative smile in return and after a moment said, “Some of the other stormtroopers had names. Names that we would call them besides their designation.”

“Like a nickname?” Poe asked and at Finn’s blank look expanded. “Like how we call Statura ‘Admiral’.”

“He’s not really an admiral?” Finn asked, looking shocked.

Poe groaned inwardly as he realised what he’d said. He’d been so careful with the conversation so far, keeping it all about Finn or talking about more general things so as not to give away any further information about the Falcon and its crew. And now Finn knew Statura’s name and not just his fictitious rank. This was exactly why Han had told them not to talk to the Stormtrooper.

“Is that why Captain Solo found it funny when I called him ‘Admiral’ and ‘Sir’? Finn was saying. “I knew he was laughing at me about something but I didn’t know what it was.”

“Han’s got a strange sense of humour.” Poe sighed and gave a mental shrug.

If Finn knew that the Captain’s name was ‘Solo’ then he already knew that he was ‘Han Solo; Infamous War Hero and Smuggler™’. And if he knew that then it would probably only take a little bit of digging for him, or whoever he might report to, to find out who the rest of Han’s crew were; including Statura. So, it was probably okay to keep talking to him.

Besides Poe didn’t really think he’d be reporting to anyone.

Finn was still talking. “The thing is, he _seems_ like an admiral; or an officer, at least. His manner and the way he talks...oh! And you should’ve seen how fast he pulled a blaster on me in the cargo hold!”

Actually, Poe _had_ seen how fast Statura was with a blaster many times and it was always impressive. It was just that immediate switch from being quiet and unassuming, with that cane of his showing that he was clearly crippled in some way, into a deadly and highly trained warrior.

“He was an officer in the Rebel Alliance,” Poe told Finn carefully, trying not to give _too much_ away but still explain the nickname. “He and Han fought together actually and Han felt that Statura never got the credit he deserved. So, he promoted Statura himself.”

“He just promoted him?” Finn asked, wide-eyed.

“Well, it wasn’t official, obviously. But it caught on with the rest of the pilots, much to the annoyance of Statura’s higher ups, apparently.” Poe grinned, remembering hearing the story from his parents when he was young. “So, what was your nickname? Back with the Stormtroopers,” he added when Finn looked a little blank.

“Oh, I didn’t have one,” Finn replied. “But my squad were ‘Nines’, because his designation was FN-2199. And ‘Zeroes’...”

“Let me guess,” Poe interrupted. “2100?”

Finn grinned wickedly and Poe was struck by how Finn seemed to smile with his whole self. “He was 2000 actually. Then there was ‘Slip’.”

Finn’s smile suddenly disappeared and instead he looked stricken.

“Was he the Stormtrooper who died in Tuanul?” Poe asked gently and, when Finn looked at him in surprise, he explained further. “I saw you kneel beside him. I’ve never seen a Stormtrooper do anything like that before. It’s why I believe you when you say you’re not a spy.”

“You believe me?” Finn asked in a surprised voice.

Poe nodded. “And I’m not the only one. Rey does too and Statura. But you understand that we still have to be careful, right? That’s why you’re in here.”

“Of course, I understand it,” Finn said, seemingly stunned by what Poe had just told him. “But you shouldn’t believe me. I mean, I _am_ telling the truth and I’m very glad that you do believe that. _Very glad_. But you shouldn’t just believe what random people who wander onto your ship tell you. That’s how you’ll get in trouble.”

Poe couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. It was possibly the most absurd lecture he’d ever received.

“So you’re glad that I believe you but think that I’m an idiot because I do,” he summed up.

Finn had looked a little affronted by Poe’s laughter but even he began to chuckle then. “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound stupid.”

“Don’t worry, I know what you mean,” Poe eventually told him, when their laughter had died down. “And we don’t take the word of everyone we meet, you’re just different.”

“Different how?” Finn asked, looking genuinely curious.

“Well for one, you voluntarily fixed up an injured wookie,” Poe pointed out. “I think an actual spy would have more self-interest than that; that’s an offer only a truly desperate man would make.”

“True.” Finn laughed and Poe was again caught by how the emotion seemed to overtake Finn entirely. “What’s two?”

Poe shrugged. “Instinct, I guess. From what I saw on Jakku, you’re obviously not like the other Stormtroopers.”

Finn acknowledged that with a nod of his head. “That’s why I didn’t have a nickname. One of the older Troopers said it was because I was an outsider, always looking in but I’d never belong.”

Finn’s voice still sounded a little hurt over that comment and Poe had the sudden urge to tell him that he _could_ belong, right here on the Falcon. He quickly shut that line of thought down. Han had made it more than clear that Finn would be off the ship as soon as they reached Cyrkon.

“I’m sure that you’ll find somewhere to belong, Finn,” he said instead. “Leaving those bucketbrains behind was a good start.”

Poe patted Finn’s leg in reassurance. His hand almost instantly began to tingle as if from static electricity and a sudden wave of warmth washed over him, causing him to give a small shudder. He stared at his hand then looked up at Finn who was looking just as wide eyed as Poe knew he was. It was then that Poe realised how close they were sitting. Finn had strayed at the bottom end of the bed as they ate and at some point they had both begun to lean forward until their chests were now barely a hand’s width apart.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed frozen like that, just staring at each other but the familiar beep of someone keying the room’s lock had Poe immediately standing up, his heart racing as though he’d been caught doing something bad.

Rey looked from Poe to Finn and back again. “What are you doing here?”

For a moment Poe could only blink at her until his mind came back online and he pointed at the discarded wrappers and nut shells. “I brought Finn some snacks; I thought he might be hungry. What are you doing here?”

Rey raised an eyebrow at Poe’s defensive tone then lifted her hand to show him the data pad she was carrying. “I thought he might be bored and don’t worry, I’ve wiped everything off it except some old holobooks and a couple of games.”

“Thank you,” Finn said from behind Poe although his voice sounded a little strained.

“Good! Right, well, I’m gonna go. Back to work. This ship’s not going to fly itself,” Poe babbled, stepping towards the door.

“Except for the fact that it is,” Rey pointed out so Poe poked his tongue out at her and left the room without looking back at Finn no matter how much he wanted to.

He made it to engineering stations before he stopped and leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. Caraya’s Soul, he had a crush on the guy who was for all intents and purposes their prisoner. Who was a Stormtrooper less than a day ago and who had never even tried actual food let alone experienced the kind of kiss that Poe had been on the verge of dragging him into before Rey had arrived. Everything made sense now; the way he’d instantly liked Finn, the fact that his thoughts kept drifting to him, the fascination with his smile and now that weird tingly feeling...Poe had felt chemistry with other people but nothing like that.

Poe Dameron had a knockdown, drag out crush the likes of which hadn’t been seen since he used to take his school teacher, Miss Fhgoia, bunches of flowers every single day. His mum had told him that it had been adorable; he couldn’t help but wonder what she’d be thinking this time. He groaned and began to lightly bang his head back against the wall in frustration.

“What the varp are you doing, Dameron?”

Poe groaned, because of all the people to have found him during this mini-breakdown, of course it was him

Opening his eyes, Poe looked at his companion and said, “Snap...I think I’m screwed.”


	4. Chapter 4

After Poe had rushed off the day before, Rey had demanded that Finn tell her exactly what had happened. Having been the recipient of both her staff and her furious glare and not wanting to repeat either experience, Finn had gone ahead and done just that. At first, she’d been as confused as he was. It wasn’t until he tried to explain how he’d felt when he and Poe had been so close; how he’d itched to somehow be closer because he somehow knew that that amazing rush of warmth he’d experienced when Poe had patted his leg would only get better with even more contact, that Rey’s eyes had lit with understanding. But she wouldn’t tell him what that understanding actually was, instead she told him that she simply had a hypothesis and that she needed more evidence.

The rest of her visit had been taken up with her showing him how to play the games on the data pad she’d brought for him. ‘Arachnor Attack’ was easily the most fun and a few ferocious battles of it with Rey took his mind off the weird moment with Poe. After she’d left, he tried ‘Sarlacc Pit’ but gave up after the fourth time his mind drifted to Poe and the Sarlacc ate him. The same thing happened with the holobook he tried to read; he kept having to reread the same bits over again until he fell asleep. Then he woke up and repeated the whole thing over again.

Eventually, Snap arrived to escort him to the galley to eat. Snap kept alternating between glowering or smirking at him as if he knew something Finn didn’t and Finn wondered if Snap was always so mercurial.

He’d expected the galley to be empty and to be given a quick and perfunctory meal before being escorted back to his room again. But Poe and Pava were already there with Poe scooping something from a large pan into some bowls.

As soon as Finn entered the room, Poe’s eyes snapped to his and that weird energy crackled between them again but the moment was broken by Snap nudging Finn towards the table.

“I hope you don’t mind us joining you,” Pava began, her tone more than a little sarcastic before she scowled at him. “But someone’s got to keep an eye on you when you’re wandering about ship. Who knows what sabotage you could get up to, Trooper?”

Before Finn could open his mouth to respond, Poe said, “His name’s _Finn_.”

Finn once again felt a surge of emotion at someone using his new name but Pava frowned and narrowed her eyes as she studied Poe. Poe completely ignored her and pushed a couple of bowls across the table. Snap pointed Finn towards one and sat in front of the other himself. As Finn watched, Snap grabbed a small container and sprinkled some of the contents over his meal before he began to eat. Finn reached out towards the container too.

“No, don’t use that.” Poe stopped him. “It makes food taste _very_ strong. I’d build up to if I were you and the soup doesn’t really need it anyway.”

Finn smiled at him in thanks and felt some relief when Poe easily returned it; at least that weird moment hadn’t spoiled the companionship he’d felt with Poe earlier. He took a mouthful of the soup and had to pause for a moment to let the different flavours dance over his tongue. He didn’t know much about how he was going to live the rest of his life outside of the First Order but he did know that he wanted to forget all about protein paste and explore more of these new foods. He wanted to discover all the flavours he could, even if he didn’t like them, because he’d never even known that they existed.

After that first spoonful, Finn enthusiastically began shovelling more of the soup into his mouth and didn’t even care about the snorts of amusement from Poe and Snap.

“R’iia’s Shorts, don’t they feed you Stormtroopers?” Snap asked. “I’ve never seen anyone enjoy rehydrated food so much.”

Poe raised an eyebrow at him. “You seem to be forgetting Rey’s arrival.”

“No,” Snap corrected, pointing his spoon at Poe. “I just choose to block that particular dark time out of my mind. Stars, I thought she was never going to stop eating until even the ship was gone; it was terrifying.”

When Finn had emptied the bowl, he sat back and observed the others; Poe and Snap kept playfully bickering and Pava constantly switched between rolling her eyes at that bickering and staring at Finn in an unnerving manner.

“What is that stuff anyway?” Finn asks, pointing at the container that Snap, and the other two it turned out, had sprinkled onto their soup.

“Boontaspice,” Poe told him between mouthfuls. “You can’t use too much of it but a little bit tastes great. I’m sure you’ll work your way up to it, buddy.”

Finn was confused. “Spice? But I thought...”

“No, it’s not that type of spice,” Poe laughed. “A general rule of thumb; if something is just called ‘spice’ then it’s probably drugs but if it’s got another name like ‘boontaspice’ or ‘tomo-spice’ then that’s fine to put on your food.”

“Huh.” Finn nodded, that was probably going to be useful information to know.

“Do you honestly not know what spices are?” Pava had stopped eating and instead of that suspicious glare she been sending him, she just looked surprised.

Finn shrugged self-consciously. “I guess it wasn’t information that the First Order thought that we needed.”

At that, Poe sent Pava a look that Finn couldn’t decipher but he didn’t have much time to try because Snap had finished off his bowl too and it was time for Finn to head back to his room. As he left, he caught a little of Pava and Poe’s conversation.

“I told you,” Poe was saying. “The only thing he asked about was spices. How is that going to help the First Order?”

“I guess it won’t,” Pava admitted after a small pause.

“He’s not a spy,” Poe told her.

“And I thought I was safe in Tuanul,” she retorted.

Finn and Snap walked back to Finn’s room in silence and Snap surprised Finn by stepping into the room after him.

“Poe’s got a good heart,” he told Finn after a slightly awkward silence. “If you’re playing on that to hurt this crew, I will personally put you in the dirt. Understand?”

“Not really,” Finn admitted.

Snap studied him for a moment before rolling his eyes and leaving, the lock engaging after him. And then Finn was alone again.

That was probably the most difficult thing for Finn to deal with. He’d never been alone, he’d always been surrounded by other Stormtroopers and First Order personnel. So he didn’t know what to do with himself. He’d never had so much time with nothing to do. Back in the First Order things were so regimented; the only time that the Stormtroopers had to themselves was the final day sector before their assigned sleep sector. Even then, Finn had used that time for extra training in order to distract himself from the traitorous thoughts he’d been having.

He wasn’t going to complain about the fact that he was almost crawling out of his skin with the need to _do something_ because if it hadn’t been for these people then he’d almost certainly be dead. But he really needed something to occupy himself. That’s why, on what he estimated was his third standard day on the ship, he decided that if he couldn’t do anything else, he could at least try to keep up his fitness regime.

He obviously didn’t have access to the equipment that had become mandatory use in the First Order but he could still do push ups and sit ups on the floor. If he was careful and remained aware of the limits of the small space then he could do some cardio exercises. Then, in a moment of inspiration, he stripped his small yet heavy metal bed of everything, including the mattress, tipped it on end, leant it against the wall and he had a ready-made rack for pull-ups. Which was exactly what he was doing when Poe arrived on his daily visit.

Finn grinned at him and dropped his feet back to the floor. Poe was carrying something and Finn hoped it was more food. He’d been bringing him something new to try every time he visited and even the horrible tasting stuff was great because it was strange and amazing and slightly overwhelming but in a good way.

He pulled off his new but now sweat soaked shirt and then frowned when he realised that Poe had frozen in the doorway with only one foot in the door.

“Poe? Are you alright?” he asked.

The other man startled at the sound of Finn’s voice. “What? Umm…yeah. Yes, I’m fine. Sorry.”

He finally moved into the room and allowed the door to close behind him but Finn didn’t think that he _was_ fine; he was fidgeting in place and looking a little flushed. Finn quickly pulled the bed down and replaced the mattress before turning back to Poe.

“Here, sit down.”

He reached out to grab hold of Poe’s arm to lead him to the bed but Poe suddenly reared back as if he thought that Finn was going to attack him. Finn felt a stab of hurt at the reaction. Of everyone on the ship, Poe was the one who had never treated him like an enemy; he’d believed Finn from the start and had defended him. But Finn must have done something wrong.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean to…”

“No, no!” Poe interrupted. “It’s not…you didn’t do…it’s not you.”

He gave a mirthless chuckle and dragged a hand through his hair while Finn just felt more and more confused.

Poe sighed and thrust a bag at Finn. “I brought you some bofa treats and galla seeds. Take it easy with the treats, they really fill you up so don’t eat too much too quickly. And we’re going to be landing tomorrow morning so you should probably get some sleep tonight.”

Finn’s stomach dropped. “Tomorrow?”

It felt far too soon. As stir crazy as he was going while trapped in that small room, at least he had people he knew here. When Solo kicked him off the ship, he was going to be completely on his own with no idea where to go or what to do. He chanced a look at Poe, who was staring at the floor. On the other hand, it clearly looked as though Finn had outstayed his welcome.

“Get some sleep,” Poe repeated and then left without meeting Finn’s eyes.

“Hell!” Finn swore, kicking the wall in frustration before he dropped down onto the bare mattress. “What do I do now?”


	5. Chapter 5

Sleep was a long time coming that night. Poe only managed to doze in fits and starts before finally drifting into a dreamless sleep a couple of hours before he was due to wake up. As a result, he slept through his normal alarm and only woke when BB8 rolled into his bedroom and zapped him, twenty minutes after he was due to be in the cockpit.

Snap shook his head when Poe sprinted into the cockpit, boots unbuckled, still buttoning up his shirt and probably looking as exhausted as he felt.

“I’ve already dropped us out of hyperspace,” Snap told him and Poe breathed a sigh of relief, he didn’t want to have to explain to Han why they’d overshot their destination by a parsec or two. “Get your head on straight, Dameron. You’ve got three days on Cyrkon so find some pretty young thing and take them to bed until you get over this crush on the Stormtrooper; I’m assuming that’s why you look like warmed up shab right now.”

Poe winced which was confirmation enough. He’d royally messed up the night before. The plan had been to break the news of their imminent arrival at Cyrkon a bit more gently; the idea of suddenly being dumped on a strange planet all alone was bound to be scary to anyone, let alone someone as sheltered as Finn seemed to be. Poe thought that he could cushion the bad news a bit by giving Finn some tips on where to go and who to avoid while on the planet and maybe even come up with a way that Finn could find work or a transport to somewhere further away from the First Order’s reach.

But then he’d walked in on that!

If the sight of the impressive muscles in Finn’s arms straining as he pulled himself up on his makeshift gym equipment hadn’t sent Poe’s pulse racing then getting to see Finn’s sculpted body when he’d whipped off that shirt definitely had. Kriff, it had taken everything he had not to push Finn to the floor and lick him all over. So instead of using the diminishing time that Finn had left on the Falcon, teaching him how to look after himself and generally soaking up his attention for the last time, Poe had frozen, blurted out that Finn only had one night left and then ran. He’d beat himself up about it since, hence the lack of sleep.

Poe briefly considered confiding in Snap about it but he already knew what Snap would say so he just dropped into the seat that the other man had vacated and began to run scans for any First Order ships in the vicinity. He could feel Snap watching him for a long moment before he finally left the room and Poe sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face before forcing his attention to the job in hand. The scans came back clean so he began his cautious approach to Cyrkon and prepared the ship for landing with a hail to the space port control.

Han joined Poe for the final landing in the space port, his hands twitching as if he wanted to take over the ship’s controls, even after all these years. Poe didn’t take it personally, the ship bays in the city of Motok, were a notoriously tight fit, especially for a freighter. He allowed himself a satisfied smirk when he managed to get the Falcon inside the city dome and perfectly situated in their allocated bay without a single scratch. Han slapped him on the back and then left him to the business of powering down the ship for their stay.

When Poe was finished, he rushed down to the living quarters. Statura was doing a final security check of the ship making sure that everything was properly locked down, and he gave Poe a smile as he jogged in through the door.

“In a hurry to get started on shore leave?” he asked with a chuckle. “Snap told me to tell you that he, Rey and our Dandorans have headed to the cantina in the old town.”

Poe nodded; he knew the place, it was a very run-down and out of the way place where Jessika and Karé would be able to hide until they found a way off the planet. “I just need to say goodbye to Finn first.”

_And give him an apology_ , he thought. _And maybe cram some of that advice in as quickly as he could before the other man disappeared._

Statura’s smile faltered a little. “He’s already left, Poe.”

“What?” Poe stared at him in disbelief. “But we’ve only just landed.”

Statura nodded. “He asked to leave as soon as we arrived; something about not wanting to be a burden any longer, so Han lowered the ramp for him straight away.”

Poe’s stomach sunk. Not wanting to be a burden, that had to have come as a result of Poe’s idiocy the night before. He couldn’t leave it like that.

“Pfassk!” Poe’s mind started trying to figure out which direction Finn might have headed in and how far he could have got by now.

Statura called out after him but Poe didn’t stop as he rushed down the entry ramp and into the port, busy even this early in the day. He tried to imagine seeing it for the first time and which would look the better direction to head in but, to be fair, it all looked the same: saloons, gambling establishments and whore houses standing behind bustling market stalls. In the end, Poe just picked a direction at random and pushed his way through the eclectic mix of market patrons, looking for any sign of Finn but to no avail.

Finally, after wandering the streets haphazardly for what felt like an hour, Poe had to give up. He was never going to find one person in a city, especially a person who was trying to be inconspicuous in order to avoid any type of confrontation which could attract attention from the First Order. His shoulders slumped in defeat and he turned on the spot, gaining an angry exclamation from the Dug who was behind him, before heading to the cantina where Snap had gone.

There was a drink already waiting for Poe at Snap’s table and Poe drank half of it in one go, spluttering as the harshness of the alcohol burned its way down his throat.

“What the varp is that?” Poe managed to get out between coughs while Snap, Rey and the Dandoran girls laughed at him.

“It’s some local brew,” Snap told him with a smirk, “I thought you could do with something a little stronger to get you out of the funk you were in this morning.”

Poe made a rude gesture at him and reached for Rey’s water to wash the disgusting taste out of his mouth.

“What was wrong with you this morning?” Rey asked him when he passed her drink back to her.

“Lover boy here was all blue because the new object of his affection was leaving us,” Snap told her, clutching at his chest dramatically.

“Scrag off, Wexley,” Poe growled.

At the same time, Jessika exclaimed, “You and the _Stormtrooper_? Are you kriffing crazy?”

“There’s no me and anyone,” Poe told her with a scowl at her continued attitude towards Finn. “And it doesn’t matter if there was because now he’s gone and I didn’t even get to…”

“Tell him you looooooove him?” Snap fluttered his eyelashes, apparently still labouring under the impression that he was being funny.

Poe glared at him. “I swear to Shiraya, Snap…”

“You didn’t get to what?” Rey interrupted with a roll of her eyes at Poe and Snap’s continued squabbling.

Poe sighed. “I didn’t get to say sorry for being an ass to him last night. I meant to apologise and give him some tips of where to go before he left but he was already gone by the time I made it off the Falcon.”

Rey nodded with a small sigh. “He left before I could talk to him too. I’m not feeling too great about just dumping him here, Poe. He’s like a big man-child; he doesn’t know anything and he’s going to get in trouble all by himself.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the table at the thought of what could befall someone like Finn in a place like Motok then Karé cleared her throat, shooting a rebellious look at Jessika before she said, “I saw Finn this morning. I told him to go to H’gaoi’s place. She knows a lost puppy when she sees one and I figured that she’ll help him out.”

“H’gaoi’s? Really?” Poe asked Karé excitedly, already climbing to his feet to go and find the wayward ex-Stormtrooper.

“Hold your bordoks, Dameron,” Jessika said. “ _I_ told him that he could find a transport off world at Andgu, that cantina over by the auction pits.”

The entire table stared at her until she shifted in her chair and crossed her arms with a scowl.

“You helped Finn?” Poe asked her incredulously.

“’Help’ is a strong word,” she shot back and then sighed. “He really is like a big man-child. And he looked so sad and pathetic, drooping his way down the ramp with his tiny bag of possessions.”

Karé grinned. “I knew there was a heart in there somewhere, Pava.”

“Actually, the credits we can make off the Stormtrooper armour he gave me to sell, helped his cause more than my so-called heart did.” Jessika huffed but the look she gave Karé was definitely fond.

“Okay, so he could be in one of two places.” Rey clapped her hands together once. “You take H’gaoi’s Place and me and Snap will check out the cantina.”

“Wait! What? How did I get dragged into this?” Snap asked. “And why can’t _I_ go to the whorehouse while _Poe_ goes to the cantina?”

“Because if we send you to H’gaoi’s you won’t come back out for the next three days,” Poe pointed out.

“And probably with as many credits in your pocket as when you went in there,” Rey added with an affectionate roll of her eyes.

Snap smirked but didn’t refute either statement. Instead he stood and held his arm out to Rey. “Shall we, my lady?”

“I’m my own lady, thank you very much” Rey informed him smartly but did take the proffered arm.

Poe nodded his thanks at Karé and Jessika then headed out of the cantina, taking a familiar shortcut to the brothel Karé had mentioned. She was right, H’gaoi was the quintessential harlot with a heart of gold and would definitely take a lost lamb like Finn under her wing; if he went there, which Poe really hoped he had.

Slipping into the rear exit of the building, Poe returned the greetings of a couple of the working boys before ducking through a pair of heavy red curtains and into the salon of the brothel. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low lighting of the room then took in the usual mix of patrons, including one gorgeous ex-Stormtrooper who was sitting slumped in a corner booth, staring miserably into his drink.

“What’s a guy like you doing in a place like this?” Poe asked, dropping into the opposite side of the booth with a grin.

Finn’s head shot up, his facing breaking into a huge smile before he registered what Poe had said, then his eyes grew wide. “Oh no! I’m not here for…I didn’t know this was one of those… Karé said that I should…”

“Calm down, Finn,” Poe chuckled. “Karé told me that she sent you to H’gaoi for help.”

Finn blinked. “She did?”

“Yup.” Poe nodded. “And Jessika said that she sent you to Andgu, which is why Rey and Snap have gone there. We figured that one of us might be able to find you.”

“You were trying to find me?” Finn looked confused for a moment then his eyes got wide again. “Oh no, did I leave something on the ship? Or was I supposed to do something before I left? Is Solo angry at me again?”

“Well if he is, then he’ll have to go through me and he’s already in my bad books,” A silky voice said from behind Poe and then a stunning Togruta walked into view. “Can you imagine? Leaving a baby like this to fend for himself, here of all places?”

She stroked her fingers down Finn’s arm and then shot Poe a sly grin despite Finn bristling at being described as a baby.

“H’gaoi, you get more beautiful every time I see you,” Poe told her, placing a kiss on the back of her hand.

“Ever the flatterer, Poe Dameron,” H’gaoi replied with a laugh. “You’ve been gone too long, boy. My youngsters have missed you and Snap.”

She nodded towards the bar where a few of the girls and boys who worked for her waved at Poe, which he returned with a friendly smile.

“Mostly Snap, I’d think,” Poe laughed, because Snap’s charms worked just as well on harlots as they did on everyone else.

“Don’t sell yourself short, boy,” H’gaoi patted the side of his face. “Keep the babe here company and I’ll get some drinks sent over.”

“I’m not a baby,” Finn muttered after H’gaoi had sauntered away.

“That’s just her way,” Poe reassured him. “She’s got a heart as big as the galaxy and likes to mother anyone she thinks needs her help.”

Finn sighed and rubbed his hand over his hair as he admitted, “And I do need help.”

“Which is why I’m here,” Poe told him. “And why the others are looking for you too. I know that it’s not much but we want to help you to find somewhere safe to go or somewhere to hide out here in Modok.”

“Really?” The relief on Finn’s face was evident to anyone looking. “Thank Caraya! Because I had no idea what to do now. H’gaoi has been lovely, obviously, but I think that she wants me to work here.” He whispered the last part.

Poe definitely didn’t want Finn to do that but this wasn’t about him, it was about Finn, so he Forced himself to say, “Are you sure? There are worse places you could work than here; H’gaoi would make sure that you’re treated well.”

Finn looked around the salon, his gaze falling on a pretty boy sitting on the knee of a Zabrak mercenary and then on a Utapaun girl leading a young trader out of the salon towards where Poe knew the bedrooms were.

He shook his head. “It’s not for me, Poe.”

“That’s okay,” Poe told him. “You’ll find something that’s right for you.”

Finn smiled at him and Poe couldn’t help but grin back. He was startled out of the moment when Oza, a young Rodian, brought a tray with a couple of drinks and some snacks over to them.

“Hey, Poe. It’s been a while.” Oza gave him a friendly nod as she placed the tray on the table. “We’ve missed you around here.”

Poe chuckled. “So H’gaoi said. Although I’m pretty sure that you have better things to do with your time, beautiful.”

“What? Better than pining after the best damn pilot in the galaxy? Surely not,” Oza said with a wink and Poe groaned at hearing his once drunken proclamation parroted back at him.

“I’m never going to live that down, am I?” he asked.

Oza ruffled his hair. “Not anytime soon, sweetie.”

“You sure know a lot of people here,” Finn commented as he watched Oza walk away.

Poe shrugged. “H’gaoi is an old friend of Han and the Admiral.”

Some years ago, H’gaoi had run into trouble with a group of racketeers who were trying to muscle in on her business and weren’t very good at taking no for an answer. When her continued resistance resulted in some of her youngsters turning up dead, H’gaoi had contacted Statura for help. Not only did it turn out that H’gaoi had fought alongside him and Han in the Rebellion, but she and the Admiral had been lovers way back when.

It wasn’t their usual job but neither of the veterans were about to turn away a friend in need so the entire crew of the Falcon had decamped to the brothel and helped H’gaoi and her working girls and boys decisively fight off the thugs. In the end, the racketeers turned tail and fled, H’gaoi gained a ferocious reputation which stopped anyone from trying to hurt her business again and the Falcon crew became good friends and welcome guests at the brothel whenever they were planetside. Poe was pretty sure that Statura and H’gaoi had also rediscovered their affection for each other but the Admiral was sneaky and none of them had managed to confirm that yet.

Finn was still watching Oza with a frown on his face and Poe had the brief thought that maybe Finn could actually be jealous. But, before that thought could turn into a kernel of hope, his attention was caught by a small flurry of activity near the bar. A couple of the girls rushed into the room and up to H’gaoi, talking to her with urgent hand gestures. When H’gaoi turned her shocked gaze on Poe, his stomach clenched uneasily.

“I think that something’s happening,” Poe murmured to Finn, nodding his head towards H’gaoi just as she hastily gestured for them to follow her.

“What do you think it is?” Finn asked quietly as they swiftly made their way out of the salon. “Do you think it’s the First Order?”

“I don’t know,” Poe replied absently, his mind quickly going over where each of his crew likely were and what type of trouble they could have got into, praying that they were okay.

H’gaoi gave them a grave look when they followed her into her office. “This has just appeared on HoloNet News.”

She activated the broadcast and Poe found himself watching footage of Tuanul. He only knew that it was Tuanul because he recognised the distinctive shrine in the centre of the village, the rest of the village had either been flattened or was on fire.

“Oh, kriff. Poe…” Finn whispered, his voice shaking, and Poe knew why.

As the footage got closer to the village, they could see the bodies on the ground. Then he let out a small sound of distress when the vid grew close enough for him to recognise them; they were the bodies of people he knew, some of the people who he’d been keeping company with only days earlier. Ones that they’d left behind, believing that they’d be okay.

Poe felt Finn grab his hand and could hear the other man trying to soothe him but he couldn’t make himself stop watching the holovid. He startled when the vid suddenly changed from the devastating scene of death and destruction to a projection of Han’s image.

“What?” Poe muttered, then blinked when Han’s image changed to that of Statura.

H’gaoi swore quietly and Poe started shaking his head.

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” he said, almost to himself. “What..?”

“They’re saying you did this,” H’gaoi explained gently, grabbing hold of his hand as the image now changed to Poe’s own face. “They’re saying that the Falcon crew killed them all.”

“We didn’t.” He managed to turn away from the spinning image of Snap to give H’gaoi a beseeching look. “We didn’t do that. We couldn’t…”

Finn’s grip on his hand tightened and H’gaoi put her hand on his cheek. “I know, boy. You would never do such a thing. None of you would.”

Poe nodded. It seemed important that she believed him somehow but his mind was moving too slow. Then he felt rather than heard the exclamation of dismay that Finn gave and Poe looked back at the vid where Finn’s image was now spinning slowly before them. Apparently, he was believed to be part of the crew who had done this.

The three of them stayed completely still, watching as the vid cycled from Finn to Rey to Chewie and then to Jessika and Karé. All of them marked as the murderers of their own friends. The vid finally ended and Poe Forced himself to focus.

He turned to look at Finn, barely noticing that the other’s arms were still around him. “We need to get back to the Falcon.”

Finn stared at him. “We?”

“Of course! I’m not leaving you here now. Your face has been projected to the entire city, maybe the whole sector,” Poe told him. “You’d be a sitting pelikki.”

“He’s right,” H’gaoi agreed. “There’s a bounty on your head, handsome, and there are a lot of mercenaries in Modok. You need to get away from here as quickly as you can.”

Poe blinked at her; he hadn’t even realised the part about the bounty. He suddenly remembered that there was a Zabrak mercenary currently in the salon and his hand automatically fell to his holster. But he couldn’t shoot his way out, that would definitely attract the attention of other bounty hunters and it would put H’gaoi’s youngsters in jeopardy.

“We’ll need disguises,” he told H’gaoi instead. “Nothing extravagant, just something that’s good enough to get us to the Falcon.”

“I can do that,” H’gaoi nodded than paused for a moment before adding, “Keep Ushos safe for me, Poe.”

It was the first time that Poe had ever heard anyone use Statura’s first name, he was only ever referred to by his surname or as ‘The Admiral’.

Poe nodded at her solemnly. “I promise.”


	6. Chapter 6

Finn swallowed a huff of frustration as the massive hood fell over his face and obscured his vision for the fiftieth time since leaving H’gaoi’s brothel. How the kriff did the Jedi’s wear these cloak things back in the day? He still wasn’t sure how disguising themselves as a mostly dead race of cult followers would help them not draw attention to themselves but Poe had said that it only needed to work for the walk to the port and Finn trusted Poe. Of course, he didn’t exactly trust that Han wouldn’t refuse to let Finn back onto the Falcon when they reached the ship but he didn’t have many options.

Tripping slightly over an inconveniently placed rock on the ground, Finn pushed his hood back again; just enough to let him see the path in front of him but not enough to reveal his face to passers-by.

Poe shot him a look, as if he could hear the complaints that Finn wasn’t saying. “Would you have preferred the dress?”

Finn shuddered at the memory of the monstrosity of frills and ruffles, topped off with an enormous, tasselled conical hat which one of H’gaoi’s girls had presented them with. The smirk that Poe gave him at that reaction was half-hearted at best. Finn knew that he was grieving the loss of his friends on Tuanul as well as worried about the rest of his crew and it was probably killing him to keep his pace unhurried in order to deflect any close scrutiny of the apparent Jedi’s walking through the city.

“Where did H’gaoi even get these things?” Finn asked, keeping his tone light in an attempt to pull Poe away from his dark thoughts. “I didn’t think that Jedi would be allowed into that type of establishment.”

“I don’t think that they belonged to any actual Jedi.” Poe’s smile grew a little less strained and, at Finn’s hum of confusion, explained. “I think they were used for people who like to pretend to be something that they’re not while in bed.”

Finn frowned. “Why would anyone want to do that?”

“It takes all types to fill a galaxy,” Poe said with a shrug. “I’m sure that H’gaoi could tell us all sorts of stories about the crazy things her customers like to do.”

“What do you like to do?” The words were out before Finn could stop them and he gave a mortified wince. “That’s not what I meant to say. I just…you’ve obviously been to H’gaoi’s a lot of times and I…umm…”

Poe was looking amused by Finn’s rambling, which was better than the anxiousness and sorrow of a few minutes earlier but didn’t help Finn’s embarrassment. He didn’t exactly know what he was trying to find out. He just knew that Poe’s easy familiarity with the brothel workers had made him feel…not quite angry, more resentful. And he’d had an urge to shield Poe to stop them from looking at him. Because they were almost all looking at him and most of them with hunger in their eyes because Poe really was a pretty, pretty man.

That last thought had Finn stumbling again, even though his hood had remained in place this time. He thought that Poe was pretty? Huh. He really did. But not pretty like Rey was; perhaps pretty wasn’t the right word. He searched his brain for a word that would fit Poe better but was distracted from his thoughts by a small sound from Poe and the realisation that they had reached the port.

Finn’s eyes immediately sought out the Falcon’s bay and he could see Han and Statura on the lowered ramp, it didn’t look as though they had a care in the world.

“They haven’t seen the holovid yet,” Finn said and Poe nodded his agreement.

He looked in the other direction towards, what was clearly, the space port control building. It was too much to hope that _they_ hadn’t seen the holovid.

“How are we going to get the ship out of the port? Won’t they lock it down?”

“They can try,” Poe muttered. “That old girl’s got a few surprises in her.”

Finn nodded. From what he’d learned in training about Han Solo, that made sense; the man had an almost supernatural ability to get away from his enemies. “We should hurry; as soon as the First Order finds out that the Falcon’s here, they’ll dispatch a battalion to get us.”

“I hope that the girls have enough sense to know that they have to get back to the ship too,” Poe said.

Finn had a sudden urge to point out that maybe it would be best if they didn’t, that it was Jessika Pava that the First Order was actually after and the rest of them were collateral damage. But that wasn’t fair; he didn’t even know what she’d been accused of, let alone if she’d actually done it. And she had given him a suggestion of how to get off Cyrkon and further away from the First Order, no matter how grudging that suggestion had been.

They finally reached the ramp and at the sound of their boots stomping up it, Han and Statura turned towards them.

Han took a look at their outfits and frowned, “What the varp ...?”

“Get in the ship,” Poe interrupted. “Have you seen any of the others?”

The urgency of Poe’s tone had the two men following his instructions immediately.

“What’s happened?” Statura asked.

“The First Order’s put a bounty on our heads,” Poe told them quickly as he and Finn pulled off their robes. “We need to get off planet, right now.”

Han narrowed his eyes at Finn. “You! This is because of you, isn’t it? Did you call them as soon as we landed or did you stop to have a drink first?”

“It’s not Finn,” Poe leapt to his defence which warmed something in Finn’s chest. “The bounty’s on his head too. And Jessika and Karé.”

Statura groaned in understanding. “They’re still after Jessika and we were the ones who helped her escape.”

Finn nodded his agreement but Poe was agitatedly pacing to the open door, looking out for any sign of the others, and then back to the small group again.

Han watched him do this a few times and then asked, “What aren’t you telling us, kid?”

This time Poe paused by the door and pressed his forehead to the cold metal. Finn could see the anguish on his face as he clearly remembered watching that damn holovid.

“The First Order have killed everyone at Tuanul,” Finn gently explained for him. “But they’ve sent out a HoloNet News broadcast saying that we were the ones who did it; that’s why there’s a bounty on us.”

Silence fell over the cargo hold after Finn finished talking for several minutes but then in a sudden burst of energy and strength Han grabbed Finn by the throat and slammed him back against a large crate.

“Han!” Statura shouted but Han ignored him.

“Those were my friends,” he hissed at Finn. “Your people murdered them. They did nothing wrong, nothing to deserve that.”

Finn could have easily tapped into his training to break the hold that Han had on him but he left his hands dangling at his sides and instead looked Han in the eye.

“I know and I’m sorry.”

Han snarled and his hand tightened on Finn’s throat before disappearing completely. Finn opened eyes he didn’t even remember shutting and saw that Chewbacca had appeared from somewhere and was helping Poe to pull Han away from him.

“Get off me, you overgrown fur ball,” Han protested as he struggled in Chewie’s grip.

Chewie growled something and Han shook his head. “I don’t care if he’s left the First Order, he still joined up with them first. He still probably did this to other innocent people.”

“No, he hasn’t,” Poe said as he came to stand between Finn and the still struggling Han. “It was only his second mission and the fact that the settlement had done nothing wrong was the whole reason why he ran from the First Order. He isn’t responsible for this.”

Finn remembered telling Poe and Rey that during one of their visits while Finn had been locked up in that room. He’d thought that they would be scornful of Finn’s cowardice on only his second ever mission but Poe and Rey had told Finn that trusting his instincts even when it went against everything he knew wasn’t cowardly; that it made him brave. Finn wasn’t sure that it was true but it had been a nice thing to hear.

Han pointed a finger at Poe even as he continued to try and wrestle away from Chewie. “I told you! I told you not to talk to him, or make friends with him or give him a kriffing name! He’s a Stormtrooper!”

“Not anymore,” Poe insisted. “Right, Finn?”

“Right.” Finn nodded.

Han scoffed. “Well, whatever he is or isn’t, he’s not welcome on this ship.”

Finn’s heart sank even though he’d known it was coming; Han had never wanted him on the Falcon so of course he wouldn’t let him back on now. He hung his head and fought back the panic threatening to rise at the thought of being left all alone to try and fight off or hide from the bounty hunters heading his way.

“If Finn’s not on this ship, then neither am I,” Poe said quietly and Finn’s head shot up to stare incredulously at the other man.

Han was clearly just as stunned because he finally stopped struggling against Chewbacca and stared at Poe open mouthed.

“Poe…you can’t…”

Finn’s attempt to stop Poe from doing something that he was bound to regret was cut off by the sound of blaster fire from outside of the ship. Immediately they all ran to the doorway to see Rey and Snap crouched behind some boxes a few bays away while the Zabrak who had been in H’gaoi’s shot at them.

“Damn! I knew that he was going to be trouble,” Poe muttered from next to Finn. “I’d hoped that he’d be distracted at the brothel for another hour or so until we got away.”

“What the varp is he shooting for? Did he miss the part where we were to be captured alive?” Finn asked incredulously as he quickly scanned the port. “Is it just him or can you see anyone else?”

“No guns out yet but there are a couple of Ugnaughts across the way who look like they can’t decide whether to help him or not,” Statura pointed out the two, clearly armed, characters he’d spotted.

Finn nodded, they were definitely waiting for a chance to get involved in this pay day; either help the Zabrak and share the bounty or wait until he killed Rey and Snap, then kill him and take the bounty for themselves. It seemed that all mercenaries took the ‘alive’ part of a bounty as more of a suggestion than an instruction.

“Why the kriff isn’t Snap shooting back, right about now?” Poe asked, pulling his blaster from its holster as if he was about to dive into the fray.

That was a fair question so Finn studied Snap and Rey, as well as he could from his vantage point, to see if there were any injuries that could account for the fact that they were just sitting there as the Zabrak fired on them. That was when he spotted Snap’s hand moving; he was making hand signals to someone. Quickly sweeping his eyes across the surrounding area, Finn spotted what he was looking for; movement in a darkened doorway.

“Pava and Kun are up that street on the left,” Finn informed the others. “I think that Snap’s waiting for her signal before doing anything.”

Poe looked where Finn indicated and cursed. “They can’t see the Ugnaughts from where they are. They don’t know that there are another two bounty hunters lying in wait.”

“Is there another way off the ship?” Finn asked Poe who slowly nodded.

“There’s an escape hatch beneath the cargo hold. Come on, if we use it now the entry ramp will hide us from the port…”

Finn stopped Poe. “ _I’ll_ go. You have to stay here and get the ship ready to leave as soon as I get everyone back onboard.”

A stubborn expression appeared on Poe’s face but before he could argue with Finn, Statura stepped in.

“He’s right Poe. The port has probably locked us down by now so you and Han need to get started on a way to circumvent that.”

Poe stared at Finn for a long moment and then sighed. “Fine. But wear that damn disguise and you’d better get your ass back on board; I don’t want to have to track you down all over again.”

The lowered entry ramp did indeed hide Finn from the port once he dropped down from the escape hatch. He quickly pulled his cloak back on and made sure his face was hidden before he jumped to the next ship bay, in the opposite direction to the firefight, and quickly rolled under that ship. He waited to hear any shouts which would indicate that he’d been spotted and when there weren’t any, he repeated the manoeuvre and jumped into the next bay. This let him back out into the port, far enough away from the Falcon and the continuing blaster fire that he could blend into the crowd unnoticed.

Clearly, Pava was planning on taking out the Zabrak as soon as she and Kun got close enough to shoot. Then they, along with Snap and Rey, could sprint to the Falcon as soon as the Zabrak went down and before any other bounty hunters making their way to the port could jump into action. Of course, she didn’t realise that the Ugnaughts were already there and could shoot the whole lot of them before they reached the ship.

Finn’s best course of action was to neutralise the Ugnaughts. So he walked passed the entrance to the street Pava and Kun were hiding on and instead concentrated on circling around behind the two suspected hunters. Just as before, no one seemed to wonder why a Jedi was wandering around and Finn could sneak up right behind them without them noticing. He didn’t really want to shoot them, not without proof that they really were bad guys, so he quietly picked up a thick metal pipe which was handily propped up against the wall.

Not a moment too soon; he barely had his fingers wrapped around it before the blaster fire suddenly stopped. Finn whipped his head up to see the Zabrak stare into the middle distance with a look of confusion before he dropped to the ground, smoke curling into the air from the blaster wound on his back. One of the Ugnaughts swore loudly and they both scrambled for their weapons but before either of them could pull them from their holsters, Finn struck them both from behind with his pipe. He started running almost before they hit the ground, throwing the pipe aside as he went.

He could see Pava and Kun sprinting from their cover, towards the Falcon, and Snap and Rey who were running ahead of him. He just had to hope that they made it before any other bounty hunters who happened to be in the area started to take pot shots at them. Finn was good at running, always had been. In fact, it had been one of his favourite training activities when he’d been a Stormtrooper. So, he caught up to Snap and Rey pretty quickly. Without missing a step, he caught hold of Rey’s hand and pulled her along with him to give her an extra boost of speed.

“What…Finn?” Rey exclaimed when she looked over at him in surprise. “Let go of my hand, I can run by my own damn self.”

“Did Dameron…find you?” Snap asked between heavy breaths, struggling to keep up with the pace he’d set but determined to make it to safety.

“Yes, he’s on the Falcon with Han,” Finn told him over Rey’s continued protests. “Come on, we’re almost there.”

They reached the ramp with Pava and Kun pounding up it just ahead of them. There was the sound of a blaster from behind them and Snap stumbled forward with a cry. Finn let go of Rey’s hand so that they could both grab him and drag him forward into the ship. Statura was waiting in the doorway, shooting back at whoever had blasted Snap and as soon as they were all across the threshold, he slammed the button to make the ramp rise.

“Snap! Snap, are you okay? Please be okay!” Rey was instantly in front of Snap, her hands running anxiously over him, trying to find where he’d been shot.

“Shoulder,” he told her through gritted teeth.

Finn looked at the shoulder in question and had to hold back a grimace at the sight of the burnt flesh surrounded by the melted material of his garish shirt.

“Let’s get you to the infirmary,” Finn told him and started to lead him, with an arm still slung around his waist but Snap stopped him.

“Later,” Snap gasped. “Need to…man guns.”

“You’re in no state to do anything right now,” Finn told him. He bit his lip and then added, “I can do it. Leave that to me.”

Snap tried to protest but Pava and Kun smoothly stepped in and took him from Finn’s hold.

“Finn can handle the guns,” Kun told Snap. “Let us take care of that wound.”

Snap looked as though he was relenting but he gave a final try. “He’s a… Stormtrooper…probably couldn’t hit…side of the Boo Boo barn.”

Pava snorted in amusement and then smirked at Finn’s cry of protest. “Probably not. But let him try, he might get better with practise. And without that ridiculous armour they have to wear.”

“Which netted us a decent amount of credits, by the way,” Kun added with a smile at Finn, albeit a bit strained under the circumstances.

With Snap being led away to be treated, Statura gave Finn an approving nod. “Rey show Finn to the gun well and then get yourself to the engineering station, we’re probably going to need a boost to get us out of here.”

Rey exaggeratedly grabbed hold of Finn’s hand and dragged him after her, shooting him a look over her shoulder daring him to protest the action.

“Is now a good time to tell you that I’ve never used anything like this?” Finn admitted when she opened the hatch to the gun well.

Rey’s annoyed expression softened a little. “It just a bigger version of a blaster. You can use one of those, right?”

“Yes, I can use a blaster,” Finn told in an affronted tone. “I was a Stormtrooper.”

“And you ran away from your second battle. Maybe it was because you can’t use a blaster, I don’t know.” She smirked and shot him a wink to show that she was just teasing before she ducked closer and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, for helping us out back there.”

As he climbed into the gun well, Finn couldn’t stop the grin growing over his face; he’d never been teased before he met Rey and Poe and it made him feel like he had real friends. _Friends_ , who’d have thought it?

“Alright. You can do this, you can do this,” he muttered to himself and he settled into the seat and pulled on the headset.

“Finn? Is that you? Buddy, can you hear me?” Poe’s voice came through the headset.

Finn nodded, even though Poe couldn’t see him. “Yes, Snap’s hurt so I’m doing this. I can do this.”

“Yes, you can,” Poe assured him. “Okay, can you see the cockpit from where you are? Spin around a bit until you can.”

Fin followed the instructions and spun to the right until he could see the cockpit above him. There was a beam coming out of the ground below them and completely surrounding it.

“You need to take out that beam before we can leave,” Poe told him. “That’s what’s locking us to the bay.”

Finn blinked. “You want me to shoot at the ship?”

“No! We don’t want you to shoot at the kriffing ship!” Han suddenly yelled down the headset. “Shoot at the generator that the beam is coming from! Echu ta!”

That made much more sense and Finn was glad no one could see him cringe at his own stupidity.

“Wait until I give you the word,” Poe said calmly, in the total opposite of Han’s continued grumbling and cursing. “We’re just waiting on Rey to transfer extra power to the engines.”

“Ready when you are,” Finn confirmed even as he felt the nerves building. He began quietly chanting to himself, “Stay calm. Stay calm.”

“I am calm,” Poe said with amusement in his voice and that helped to quiet Finn’s rising anxiety more than anything; if Poe was still cracking jokes then things couldn’t be as dire as he thought. “Okay, get ready…now, Finn!”

Finn aimed the gun at the generator and fired. It exploded in a burst of sparks then the beam sputtered before disappearing.

He couldn’t help it; he whooped and punched the air. “Did you see that?”

“We saw it,” Han replied and then almost grudgingly added. “Nice shot.”

The ship started to rise and now that he was completely out of the bay, Finn could see the large crowd of officials gathered on the space port, a lot of them shooting at the ship. Okay, so maybe it was as dire as he’d thought and suddenly something that should have occurred to him a lot earlier popped into his head.

“How are we going to get out of the dome?”

On the way in, Rey had explained that the dome worked on an ever-changing set of frequencies. Unless a ship has been given the current frequency and keyed their transmission to match it, the dome would destroy the ship.

“I’ve got it covered,” Poe replied. “Trust me.”

Finn did trust him, how could he not? But, even so, he couldn’t help but shrink back into his seat and close his eyes as they approached the shimmering blue of the dome, half expecting to hear the groan of a ship being torn apart. But instead they sailed right through and Poe gave a whoop of his own which Finn quickly joined in with. They’d made it!

“I told you that it would work, old man!” Finn could hear Poe crowing to be answered by Han’s fond:

“Don’t get cocky, kid!”


	7. Chapter 7

When they were in deep shab and needed to lay low, there was one person who the Falcon crew could turn to; Maz Kanata, infamous pirate queen and keeper of the registry. After escaping Cyrkon and jumping to hyperspace, Poe had input the coordinates to her castle even before Han had told him to. Once that was done, he and Han headed down to the infirmary to check on Snap. 

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the crew were already there, sitting or standing around the room as they watched Finn inspect the wound on Snap’s shoulder. Snap had clearly already been administered a sedative by the Dandorans because he barely winced at Finn’s prodding and instead smiled beatifically at everyone.

“Okay, Pava,” Han began, leaning against a counter with his arms crossed. “I think it’s about time that you told us why the First Order wants you so badly.”

“I don’t…” Jessika shook her head and took a deep breath. “We stole some medical supplies from a First Order medical base out in the Thand sector. There was a mining colony who had a plague outbreak and badly needed medicine. The First Order were refusing to help them, so they hired us.”

“Medical supplies? Really?” Han asked sardonically.

“I swear,” Jessika told him. “I have no idea why they’re coming after us so hard.”

Poe was listening to the conversation but his attention had been grabbed by Finn, whose head had shot up at the mention of the Thand sector. “What is it, Finn?”

“I’ve been there, that’s Medical Base 5-874. It’s near The Ring of Kafrene, right?” At Jessika’s nod, Finn continued. “How in Caraya’s name did you manage to break in there? The security there was top level.”

Jessika smirked at him. “Oh, I can get in anywhere. That’s why I get paid so well.”

Han gave Jessika a speculative look, no doubt wondering how he could utilise such skills in the future.

“Really?” Finn seemed astounded that anyone could get passed First Order security.

“When were you there?” Rey asked.

“Six months, three weeks and four days ago,” Finn told her. “My blood work indicated that I was sick and so I was sorted there for treatment.”

“What were you sick with?” Karé asked him.

Finn shrugged. “That wasn’t information that I was required to know. I was there for two months and sixteen days, then I was sent back to the Finalizer.”

Poe fought back a burst of anger about the way that the First Order had treated Finn. Not required to know what was wrong with him? It was crazy.

“Was it just a medical base?” Han looked thoughtful. “I mean, why all that ‘top level’ security for some sick troopers?”

“I don’t know. I guess it was,” Finn told him. “But I wasn’t allowed to leave my room unless it was to get tests done and my guard made sure that I didn’t deviate or get lost.”

“Guard? You mean like an armed escort? In a hospital?” Poe questioned; that didn’t sound right to him.

“Why do you sound surprised?” Finn looked around. “Isn’t that how they normally work?”

Everyone shook their heads and Finn frowned. 

“Okay, something definitely sounds poodoo about this place,” Han said. “And I bet whatever you stole; it had something to do with it.”

“It was just medicine,” Jessika insisted.

Han raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sure? Did you check every crate?”

“Not every crate,” Jessika admitted. “Mother of Kwath! What the pfassk did we steal?”

Everyone looked at Finn who just shrugged because, obviously, that hadn’t been information he’d been required to know.

There was nothing that anyone could do while they were in hyperspace so most of the crew drifted away until it was just Poe, Finn and Snap left.

“Hey, Poe Poe Poe!” Snap grinned at him. “Pretty Poe!”

Poe chuckled. “I see that the girls gave you the good drugs.”

“I’m feeling nooooo pain,” Snap agreed even as Finn went back to cleaning the wound. “Still true though, you are very pretty, Isn’t he pretty, Finn?”

Finn glanced up at Poe and Poe could swear that there was a faint darkening across his cheeks. “Umm…yes?”

Snap grinned at him and patted his hand. “And if you think he’s pretty now, wait until you see him with his lips wrapped around your cock, now that…”

“Snap!” Poe interrupted loudly. “Not in front of other people!”

Snap frowned at him in a dazed manner. “Since when, pretty Poe?”

Which was a fair point; that had never stopped them before. But it just felt wrong to discuss this type of thing in front of Finn, especially when his eyes had grown as wide as plates at Snap’s proclamation.

“Since now,” Poe told him. “Now be a good boy and let Finn fix you up.”

Snap looked offended. “I’m always a good boy.”

Poe snorted at how incorrect that statement was. He turned his attention to Finn who was still staring at him. “How’s his shoulder looking?”

Finn startled at the question and quickly turned back to the wound. “He’ll have a nasty scar but he’ll live.”

He put down the cleaning wipes and then used the bacta spray as a healing measure before beginning to bandage the wound. 

“Do all troopers learn how to do that? Or were you the medic of your…squad?” Poe asked, noting the quick and efficient movements Finn made.

“Troop,” Finn corrected with a wry smile. “Actually, I learned it at the medical base. There was nothing to do there except watch our assigned holovids and go to our assigned training sectors. So, I started to watch what the doctors did and one of them noticed so he taught me some basic stuff. He said that it might come in useful one day. I don’t think that he meant like this.”

Poe smirked. “You mean that he didn’t foresee you leaving the First Order to join a ragtag crew of smugglers for excitement and adventure?”

“Who’s ragtag?” Snap protested, sleepily.

Finn laughed and his eyes caught with Poe’s. They just stared at each other, the air between them crackling with energy. It was like that first night Poe had visited Finn in his room, except this time Poe was beginning to suspect that it wasn’t just him with a crush. 

The moment was broken when Snap let out an almighty snore and Poe rolled his eyes at the noise. “We should probably get him to his bunk before he falls too deeply asleep, we’ll never be able to move him then.”

With a nod, Finn finished bandaging Snap’s shoulder, then he and Poe both slid an arm around him and began to manoeuvre the man off the cot. Snap roused enough to be able to walk to his room under his own steam but he was very groggy and needed Poe and Finn’s help to guide him there and ensure that he didn’t walk face first into a wall or something. As the three of them passed the galley, the Admiral popped his head out of the door and called after them.

“How’s he doing?” he asked Finn.

“M’fine,” Snap said, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

“If he’s on light duty for the next few days then, he’s right, he should be fine,” Finn replied and Statura nodded.

“Good. That’s good. Poe, Finn will have to bunk with you until this all gets sorted out. I’ve put Jessika and Karé in the room Finn was in.” 

Poe felt his eyes grow large and his pulse suddenly sped up at the idea of sharing a small space with Finn. Finn’s eyes apparently widened for an entirely different reason.

“I’m not going to be locked in a room this time?”

Statura smiled gently at him. “I think that you’ve proven yourself to be trustworthy over the past few hours, don’t you?”

“And Han’s alright with that?” Finn asked in disbelief. 

“He is,” Statura confirmed. 

“But…”

“For galaxy’s sake, kid,” Snap groaned, leaning on the bulkhead with his good shoulder. “Just accept it and move on. Or argue about it after you’ve got me to my room, otherwise I’m going to fall asleep right here.”

Statura chuckled. “Go on, get some rest. We can’t have our gunner out of action.”

“I don’t know, we look to have found ourselves a pretty decent replacement,” Poe said with a wink at Finn who grinned back, seemingly still delighted with his great shot earlier. 

Snap made a tired whine of protest which caused Poe to laugh and then Finn and Poe got back to the task of herding the man to his room. 

All too soon, Poe found himself standing in his own tiny room with Finn. While Finn curiously looked around at the detritus Poe had picked up over the years, Poe watched him. He was now about 80% sure that Finn was attracted to him too but he was also aware that Finn had spent his life completely sheltered and cut off from normal life by the First Order. He’d probably never dealt with anything like this before.

Finn picked up a toy model of an A-wing that Poe had brought with him from home. It was a replica of his mother’s ship when she’d fought in the war and it had been Poe’s favourite toy when he was a child. It sat on a shelf next to a well-worn Pathfinder doll which his grandmother had made for him when he was crying and missing his parents; even with half its stuffing missing and an imperfectly repaired left eye, it still bore a resemblance to his father that made Poe smile.

“You have a lot of things,” Finn murmured. “I’ve never had things that weren’t needed for my training.”

Poe remembered that Finn had been with the Stormtroopers since he was a baby. So, he hadn’t ever had just frivolous stuff. “Next place we stop, we’ll find you something. Even if it’s just a weird shaped rock; everyone should have random things.”

Finn grinned at the idea of owning something unnecessary and Poe thought that he’d probably buy Finn as many impractical items as he could if it kept getting him that smile. He briefly wondered if Han still carved things the way he’d used to when Poe was a kid. Maybe Poe could talk him into making something for Finn. For now though…Poe picked up a gaudy snow globe that Rey had found in a junker’s yard; it had a little X-Wing in it and, knowing how much Poe had always wanted to fly one, she’d given it to him.

“Here, you can borrow this until we find you something of your own.”

“Seriously?” Finn stared at Poe with all sorts of emotions flickering over his face, too quickly for Poe to catch.

Then he quickly took the two steps that brought him into Poe’s personal space and gave him a hug. Poe smiled, pleased that he could make Finn happy with this small gesture and gave him a supportive squeeze, intending to step away and maybe go rustle them up some food from the galley before he headed back to the cockpit but his fingers accidentally brushed against the base of Finn’s neck causing a tingling sensation to shoot up his arm. Finn gasped and his eyes locked onto Poe’s. That last 20% of doubt that Finn was attracted to him went flying out of the window at the expression on Finn’s face.

“Finn, buddy. Maybe we shouldn’t…” he trailed off when Finn put a tentative hand on Poe’s chest. “Oh pfassk…”

Poe leaned in that last distance and kissed Finn. It was just a chaste pressing of lips but that tingling he’d felt touching Finn earlier increased tenfold and he had to stop himself from deepening the kiss and chasing more of the sensation. Instead, he pulled back and studied Finn. The other man seemed to have frozen in place.

“Are you okay?” Poe asked him gently and Finn nodded.

“Do it again,” he demanded quietly.

Poe smiled. He grabbed Finn’s hand, coaxed it to unclench and tangled their fingers together, then he kissed Finn again. This time Finn pushed closer and Poe used his other hand to cup Finn’s jaw as they shared kiss after kiss, warmth flowing into Poe as Finn’s enthusiasm grew. When Poe opened his mouth and licked Finn’s bottom lip, the other man let out a low moan.

Poe chuckled. “You still okay?”

“I really am,” Finn replied with a grin. He moved his hand from Poe’s chest and pushed his fingers through Poe’s hair instead. “Is this alright?” 

“Almost anything you want to do with me is alright,” Poe told him.

With a smile, Finn initiated the kissing this time. Poe moved his hands to Finn’s hips and walked them both across the tiny room without stopping the kisses. He pulled Finn down onto the bed and let out a groan of his own at the feel of Finn’s body on top of his. Finn looked down at him with a wide smile, seemingly pleased to have got such a reaction from Poe, and then went back to licking at Poe’s lips until he opened his mouth to him. A shiver ran through Poe’s body as Finn began a tentative exploration of Poe’s mouth that quickly grew bolder. Finn was clearly inexperienced but, once he got over his initial nerves and his confidence grew, he was very eager to learn. In fact maybe even a little too eager for Poe’s peace of mind and, as Finn squirmed against him in just the right way to make him gasp, Poe decided to slow things down. 

“We should probably stop now, buddy,” Poe murmured against Finn’s lips.

“What? Why?” Finn lifted his head and frowned down at Poe. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“Far from it,” Poe assured him. “But we’re moving a little fast. I don’t want this to be something that you look back on with regret because I pushed you too far too soon.”

Finn looked confused. “But how else am I going to learn?”

“Caraya’s soul, you’re going to be the death of me.” Poe closed his eyes while he tried to think of a way to explain this and so was entirely unprepared for Finn to start kissing his neck. He groaned, “Finn…”

“You feel good, Poe,” Finn explained between kisses and small, cautious licks against Poe’s skin. “And I feel good. I don’t think that we should stop yet.”

Finn squirmed against him again and Poe could feel his restraint and attempt to be responsible begin to crumble. Finn was right, this just felt too damn good. The next time that Finn squirmed, Poe almost unthinkingly rocked back against him and Finn froze again. Poe’s eyes flew open, apologies on his tongue but came up short at the look of wonderment Finn was giving him.

“Do that again,” Finn repeated his words from earlier, when things were far more modest.

Studying Finn’s face for any sign of discomfort or hesitation, Poe repeated his action. When Finn’s head fell back with a groan at the sensation of Poe’s hardness against his own, even through layers of clothing, Poe swallowed loudly. Finn was beautiful like this. 

Grabbing hold of Finn’s hips, Poe slowly rolled his hips again. Catching on quickly, Finn copied him; deliberately pressing down against Poe rather than the erratic squirming of before.

“Stars, Finn. That’s good, you’re so good,” Poe gasped and Finn moaned in reply. 

Finn’s movements were speeding up and clearly this was going to be over sooner than Poe would like but that didn’t matter; Poe would happily swap any marathon nights of sex for a fumbling and raw experience with this man. Finn started to quietly chant Poe’s name over and over, his eyes squeezed shut, before he shuddered against Poe with a small cry. At the utterly gorgeous sight of Finn losing it, Poe ripped open his trousers and shoved his hand inside to take hold of himself. It only took half a dozen strokes before he threw his head back against the pillow and fell over the edge with Finn’s name on his lips.

Poe didn’t know how long they laid, crushed together on the tiny bed as they got their breath back, but none of the awkwardness or remorse that he’d expected trickled in. Instead, Finn had grabbed hold of Poe’s hand and wriggled about until his head was on his shoulder.

“Is it always that good?” Finn suddenly asked, breaking the surprisingly comfortable silence.

“If you’re doing it right.” Poe chuckled. “If you take your clothes off, it gets even better.”

Finn lifted his head and made a face. “Yeah, I don’t think that the clothes thing was a good idea. These are my only things to wear, I had to ask Snap for them when the bodysuit got too uncomfortable.”

“We definitely need to resolve that situation,” Poe told him, mentally adding clothes to the list of things he was going to get for Finn when he had the chance. “Help yourself to my clothes whenever you need them.”

Finn’s face lit up again. “Really?”

“Really.” Poe nodded and then stretched before pushing himself up, careful not to dislodge Finn.

When Statura had put Finn in Poe’s room to sleep, he clearly meant that Finn should sleep on the pull-down bunk above Poe’s bed. But Poe definitely wasn’t going to complain about the two of them snuggled up against each other in the one bed for the next few days instead.

He stood up, wrinkling his nose at the sensation of wet stickiness in his trousers as he moved. He leaned down and kissed Finn. 

“I’m going to clean up and then I have to get back to flying the ship so the room is all yours, buddy. Help yourself to anything you need; the head and fresher are through that door and the clothes stored under the bed.”

By the time Poe finished his shower and walked back into the room, Finn was fast asleep; having apparently already cleaned up and changed into some old training clothes of Poe’s. Making sure that Finn was settled, Poe then made his way to the cockpit, calling into the galley for some snacks on the way. Han was already sitting in the pilot’s seat, staring out at nothing.

“I’ve checked Maz’s register,” Han said, without turning away from the viewfinder. “Quite a few of them believe the HoloNet News about what happened in Tuanul and are crying for our heads.”

“How can they believe that druk?” Poe exclaimed. “Why would we have done that? They were our friends!”

“Luckily for us, most of the register believe that instead.” Han scrubbed a hand over his face, looking every inch his age. “I’ve spent years avoiding the central planets and the First Order. Figured that I’d done enough of fighting fanatics for one lifetime, better to leave that to the idealists.”

“Speaking of…are you going to talk to her?” Poe asked. “She’s bound to have seen the holovid by now.” 

Han gave a mirthless chuckle. “Knowing Leia, she saw it before it was even broadcast. I don’t know, it’s not as though there’s much that she could do.”

Poe had only met Leia Organa twice in his lifetime. She had visited his mother after she got sick, not that Poe had known about the sickness at the time, he’d just known that the General Organa had come to spend time with his family. He’d bragged about it for weeks. 

The second time had been when he was already part of Han’s crew. At the time, it had just been him, Han and Chewbacca and they were at a rundown saloon in some no name town in the outer rim. Leia had walked in and the place went silent; she was easily the most beautiful and elegant thing that town had ever seen. Chewbacca had dragged Poe away so he hadn’t heard the former couple’s conversation but he’d watched them avidly. He’d never seen Han look at anyone that way; as if they were the single most important thing in the galaxy, and Leia couldn’t hide her love for Han either. But there was a deep sadness surrounding the both of them that Poe could see, even from a room away. It was almost heart-breaking to realise that even a love that strong couldn’t survive the death of a child. 

After Leia had left, Poe had asked Han why she’d been there. He’d replied that she had discovered that an old friend of theirs was in trouble; had fallen on very hard times and taken to drinking due his despair and desperation. Leia had thought Han might want to know and she’d been right because a week later, they’d carried a dead drunk Statura from a gambling den, cleaned him up and the crew had grown by one. 

Han visibly shook himself out of his melancholy, never one to mope for long, and finally turned to look at Poe.

“Has the Trooper settled in?”

“His name’s Finn,” Poe insisted and Han held up his hands even as he rolled his eyes. “He’s a little shocked that he’s not being locked in again.”

“Don’t think that I wasn’t tempted. But he did a good job today,” Han admitted. “I’m not saying that I trust him…”

Poe snorted. “You, not trusting anyone? I’m shocked.”

“Whereas you trust too easily, fly boy,” Han shot back. “What were you thinking, threatening to leave the Falcon if I didn’t let theTroo…Finn back on board? Would you have actually done it?”

Poe shook his head. “I don’t know. Possibly. I just…there’s something special about him. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“Caraya’s soul, Poe! Tell me that you didn’t jeopardise your place on the crew because you want to get in this guy’s pants!” Han exclaimed. 

“It’s not that,” Poe said and then flushed at Han’s look of disbelief. “Fine, it’s not only that. Look, he spent his entire life being brainwashed by those sons of banthas, and I do mean that literally because it turns out that all the Troopers were stolen as babies. Yet instead of being programmed to do whatever the First Order wants, just like the rest of the Troopers, Finn broke free of all that indoctrination. Can you imagine how much will power that…”

“Back up!” Han interrupted. “Did you just say that the First Order kidnap kids to be Stormtroopers?”

Poe nodded. “And not just kids. Actual babies. Finn has zero memory of life before the First Order.”

“How the pfassk did they get away with that?” Han frowned. “Shouldn’t we all have heard about thousands of babies being kidnapped?”

“On the central planets, maybe,” Poe pointed out. “But in the outer rim…”

Poe was willing to bet that on some of those dust planets they may even have been desperate enough to sell their babies just to be able to feed the rest of their family. Not that he’d ever mention that to Finn; it was probably better to believe that he’d been stolen rather than possibly sold.

“Caraya! Baby stealing and massacres; it looks like Leia’s had the right idea all these years, trying to get the New Republic to denounce them,” Han mused. “Don’t ever tell her that I said that!”

Poe snorted and then silence fell in the cockpit as both men stared out into space, each lost in their own thoughts.


	8. Chapter 8

Finn walked down the ramp of the Millennium Falcon and stared at, what could only be described as, a fortress.

“It doesn’t look much like a tavern,” he commented to Rey who was walking beside him. “And should we really be going somewhere so public? What if some bounty hunter comes after us again?”

“Not while we’re here,” Rey told him. “Maz has very strict rules about bounties being collected under her roof and you do not want to get on Maz’s bad side.”

The more Finn heard about this Maz, the scarier she sounded. At this point he was picturing an even bigger Grindalid, a species that Finn had been a little frightened of ever since he’d seen old archive footage of one attacking a group of clone troopers.

“And this Maz will know what was in the crates Jessika stole?” Finn asked dubiously.

“I’ll bet you 200 credits that she does,” Snap said from behind them. “That woman knows everything. It’s kinda scary.”

As the group approached the fortress, Finn noticed a tiny figure standing at the top of some stone steps, clearly waiting for them.

“I told you. She knows everything,” Snap chuckled.

“What?” Finn frowned and then looked back up the steps. “ _That’s_ Maz?”

“Don’t let her size fool you, buckethead,” Han said as he brushed passed and began to climb the steps.

Finn still wasn’t used to Han being, not exactly nice, but not openly hostile to him. He’d like to think that he’d won Han over with his superior gun skills but it was more likely that he appreciated Finn protecting Rey and Snap. If he’d learned one thing about the infamous Han Solo it was that he was ridiculously grumpy. But if he’d learned two things about the infamous Han Solo it was that he was _very_ protective of his crew.

Han and Maz had already gone inside the building by the time the rest of the group reached the top of the stairs. Finn eyed the door uneasily, still not happy with the idea of going into a tavern while there was a price on their heads but Rey grabbed his (Poe’s ) shirt and pulled him along in her wake.

It felt as if every eye in the place was on them and, when Finn thought about it, they probably were. All of them had their faces beamed across the galaxy on the HoloNet News. Even if there was a strict ‘no violence’ rule in this cantina, people were probably estimating their chance of getting the crew once they’d left.

“This is a really bad idea,” he muttered.

“Probably,” Poe agreed. “But we don’t exactly have many other options.”

They all joined Han and Maz at a table in a more secluded part of the tavern. Finn made sure that he sat where he could see the rest of the room; he just couldn’t shake his sense of foreboding. This also put him opposite Maz and he couldn’t believe that this tiny woman with the kind face could rule this place with such an iron fist. Although he could believe that she probably knew everything; judging from the way those huge eyes behind even thicker goggles had darted between him and Poe when Poe took the seat next to him, she clearly didn’t miss a thing.

He shifted a little uncomfortably, unsure what she’d spotted when he himself didn’t exactly know what was going on. He knew that he liked spending time with Poe, not just the sex part – although what they’d done so far had been amazing – but also the times just talking and exchanging stories of their pasts. Sharing Poe’s clothes and bed made Finn’s stomach swoop in a very pleasant manner and Poe’s continued attempts to get as many different types of food as he could so that Finn could try them, warmed Finn from the inside. But he remembered the conversation that Poe and Snap had the night Snap had been shot. They clearly had something going on too despite the fact that they were sleeping with other people. It was very confusing to Finn and he didn’t know what that meant for him and Poe.

“What have you got yourself into now, Han Solo?” Maz asked, dragging Finn’s attention back to her.

“You tell me, Maz,” Han replied, slouching back into his seat as if he didn’t have a care.

“Don’t give me that act. I know you too well.” Maz pointed her finger at him. “You’ve stolen the wrong thing this time.”

Han shook his head. “I know that I’ve said this many times before but this time I mean it; it wasn’t me.”

“We did it,” Jessika said. “We stole some medical supplies. Han had nothing to do with it. He just gave us a ride off Jakku when the First Order tracked us down.”

Maz turned her gaze on Jessika and nodded thoughtfully. “It did seem a little strange that you would all be working together.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Han frowned but Maz waved him off, her attention still on Jessika.

“Do you know what it is that we stole? Do you know what was hidden in those supplies that was important enough that they would...?” Jessika looked stricken at the memory of what had happened on Tuanul and couldn’t finish her question.

Maz patted her hand, comfortingly. “Not exactly, no. Just that whatever it is came from an experimental lab on that medical base and that they _really_ want it back.”

“Could we get it back?” Finn asked and turned to look at Jessika. “Those people that you stole the medical supplies for, can we get it back from them?”

“And then what? Give it back to the First Order with an apology and hope that they’ll leave us alone?” Han shook his head. “That’s not the way these people work, you should know that better than anyone. They’ll kill us and take the experiment…thing off our corpses.”

Han was right; there was no way that the First Order would just let them all go on their merry way. Especially not Finn.

“So what do we do now?” Rey asked.

“You lie low,” Maz told her. “Something else will eventually come along that the First Order will turn their attention to and they won’t be so one-minded in their pursuit of you. That’s always the way it goes with these zealots.”

“Do you know somewhere we can go?” Han asked and Finn realised that was the real reason they were here, to find somewhere to hide.

“I think so,” Maz replied to Han. “Just let me work my magic; you’ve burned a lot of bridges in the past, Han.”

Maz rushed off and the rest of the table got themselves some drinks and settled in to wait. Finn still felt all those eyes on them and couldn’t relax despite Rey, Snap and Poe’s deliberately playful chatter. Finally, he got up to look around the tavern a little in an attempt to walk off some of his restless energy.

“Who _are_ you?” Finn spun around to see Maz standing behind him, peering up at him through those goggles.

“Umm…I’m Finn,” he replied. “I’m…”

“A Stormtrooper,” Maz finished, making him startle. “Or, at least you were. _How interesting_.”

“What’s interesting?” Finn asked. “And how did you know about…you know, the Stormtrooper thing?”

He lowered his voice for the last part but he needn’t have bothered because there was no one near to hear them. He’d managed to wander away from the main part of the tavern, walked down some steps and found himself near a bunch of storerooms that looked as though they’d been neglected for years.

“You hold yourself like a Stormtrooper,” Maz told him and Finn immediately tried to adjust his stance, much to Maz’s amusement judging from the sparkle in her eye.

She continued to stare at him, making hmmm noises. “A Stormtrooper on Han Solo’s crew. I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Oh, I’m not on his crew.”

She ignored him, continuing, “But maybe I did. Maybe you’ve been destined for that crew all along. There is a tremor in the Force around you; it marks you as special, child, and no one attracts special people like Han Solo.”

“The Force? You’re a Jedi?” Finn spluttered.

Maz chuckled. “There is far more to the Force than Jedis and Sith. You need look no further than your flashy pilot.”

“Wait…Poe?” Finn gasped. “He’s got the Force?”

“ _Everyone_ has the Force, it’s in every living thing,” Maz told him. “But some people are a little more sensitive to its effects than others. Poe Dameron is one of those people. Why do you think he’s such a good pilot?”

“And you think that I am too?”

She hummed again. “No, you’re not but there’s definitely something…unique about you, Finn the Stormtrooper.”

“Don’t call me that.” Finn winced. “And what the varp’s so unique about me?”

“You’ll need a far more knowledgeable person than I to tell you that,” Maz replied.

“I didn’t think such a person existed, Maz.”

Finn startled and spun around to see Poe leaning against the wall a little further up the corridor.

“You should know by now that your flattery won’t work on me, Poe Dameron.” Maz jabbed a finger in Poe’s direction, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

Poe held his hands up. “I know, I know; you only have eyes for Chewie. Can’t blame a guy for trying though.”

Maz smiled, shaking her head. “Stop pretending, child. We both know that I’m not the one your heart is set on.”

With that, Maz gave them both a knowing look, then turned and left.

Finn stared at the floor, questions cycling through his mind. He was somehow different from _everyone_? Did that mean that there was something wrong with him? Is that why he never fit in with the Stormtroopers? Would he ever be able to fit in anywhere?

“Hey.”

Lifting his head, Finn could see that Poe had moved closer and was watching him with concern etched on his face. He opened his mouth to ask how much of his confusing conversation with Maz Poe had heard but instead one of the other questions that was circling in his head with regards to that conversation popped out unbidden.

“You’re in love with someone?” Finn’s eyes grew wide and he tried to backtrack. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant to ask. I mean, that’s clearly none of my business. That’s your personal stuff and Maz shouldn’t have said that in front of me, she doesn’t even know me and _you_ barely know me and…”

“Woah.” Poe interrupted Finn’s babbling. “Okay, firstly I _do_ know you. I know that you’ll risk your life for others. That you won’t just blindly follow orders if you don’t believe they’re right. I know that you really like the Admiral’s version of Nyork chowder but you _do not_ like duusha cheese…”

Finn shuddered at the memory. It had felt like he’d thrown up everything he’d ever eaten after that particular meal and Rey had been mortified as it had been her turn to cook.

“…I know that you make a purring noise if I stroke just the right spot on the back of your leg…”

“I don’t purr,” Finn protested and Poe grinned.

“Like a loth-cat. It’s adorable, it really is.” His smiled dimmed a little. “As for the rest of it…I don’t know if it’s love but I definitely have feelings. _Strong_ feelings.”

Finn’s heart sunk and he nodded sadly. “For Snap, right?”

Poe’s head shot up and he gave Finn an incredulous look. “What? _Snap?_ ” He started to laugh. “I was talking about you, you moof-milker!”

Bristling over the insult, it took a few moments for Finn to realise what Poe had just said. “Me? You have feelings for me? Not Snap?”

“Yes, you and definitely not Snap,” Poe confirmed with an affectionate look. “You don’t snore for a start.”

“Nope. I just purr.” Finn grinned because Poe _had feelings for him_ and he clearly had feelings for Poe.

“Like a loth-cat,” Poe repeated. He stepped closer to Finn and pressed a hand to his chest, gently pushing him back against the wall. “I think that I’ve wanted you since I saw you. Which is weird because when I first saw you, you were a Stormtrooper who was hiding behind a building and looking terrified.”

“I think that I did too,” Finn told him. “The wanting you thing. I just didn’t know that’s what it was because, you know, I didn’t know what anything was.”

He raked his fingers through Poe’s hair, something that he really enjoyed doing because it always made the other man’s eyes go soft with pleasure, and then pulled him into a kiss. R’iia’s shirts, he’d grown to love kissing Poe over the past few days and occasionally thought that he would be happy to just do that all day and ignore the rest of the galaxy. Unfortunately, they couldn’t even ignore the rest of the ship; not while they were in this much trouble, so any kissing had been limited to night time and the occasional snatched moment alone.

Finn had intended this kiss to be brief, they were in public after all, but the acknowledgement of their growing feelings meant that it quickly turned hot and heavy. When Poe slipped a thigh between Finn’s legs, Finn groaned lowly and Poe chuckled against his lips.

“We can’t do this here, Poe,” Finn whispered. “Someone could come down here at any minute.”

Poe hummed in acknowledgement. He pulled back and quickly looked around them.

“Come on!” He grabbed Finn’s hand and pulled him into one of the storerooms nearby.

There was a tall pile of crates towards the back of the room. Poe dragged Finn behind them and into another heated kiss. Finn wrapped his arms around Poe eagerly and lost himself in the moment. So much so that it was a shock when Poe was suddenly gone.

“What…?”

Poe had dropped to his knees and was pushing Finn’s shirt out of the way so that he could press kisses to his exposed belly.

He looked up at Finn. “Do you trust me?”

“Y…yes.” Finn nodded, his voice breaking a little as Poe began to untie the laces on his trousers.

Poe moaned a little when he pulled Finn free and that made heat shoot through Finn. He’d been hard since the kissing began in the corridor but got even harder at the look of utter worship on Poe’s face. He leaned forward and rubbed his cheek along Finn’s length and Finn groaned loudly at the sensation, his head falling back against the crate behind him.

“You might want to keep the noise down, buddy,” Poe reminded him. “We are in a pirate tavern, after all.”

Finn nodded and then shoved his hand into his mouth to muffle the noises that he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep in. He jumped at the first touch of Poe’s tongue and then slumped against the crates when Poe took him into his mouth. He’d never felt anything like this. His world narrowed in on the pleasure that Poe was giving him and he only barely remembered to keep his mouth covered, otherwise, he was sure that the entire castle would be able to hear what was happening down here.

Without stopping what he was doing, Poe reached up and moved Finn’s other hand to his head. When Finn blindly grabbed onto those curls, Poe moaned around him. The vibrations of that pushed Finn over the edge so quickly that it took him by surprise and his vision whited out. When he came back to himself he was sitting on the ground beside Poe, who was stroking himself earnestly with his eyes firmly locked on Finn. Despite feeling like his limbs had turned to liquid, Finn managed to shift closer. He placed one hand over Poe’s, easily picking up the preferred rhythm he’d learned over the past couple of days and wringing a quiet noise of pure pleasure from his lover and then leaned forward to kiss him.

“Finn…” Poe whined breathlessly.

“Look at you,” Finn whispered. “You look so beautiful, Poe. _My_ Poe.”

At those words, Poe’s back arched and he gave a soundless cry as he reached completion. He slumped against Finn, breathing heavily, and Finn stroked his hair while they both recovered.

“I can’t believe that we just did that here,” Finn said quietly and Poe chuckled. “How mad is Maz going to be? You know that she’s going to know.”

“But it _is_ her fault,” Poe pointed out. “Besides, she seems to like you. So, hopefully not too mad.”

That reminded Finn of the rest of his conversation with Maz. “She thinks that I’m different from everyone else.”

“Unique,” Poe said, proving that he had overheard a lot of that discussion after all.

“I don’t want to be unique,” Finn muttered. “I just want to fit in, for once.”

Poe cupped the side of his face. “You fit with me. You fit with the Falcon and the rest of the crew.”

Finn gave him a tremulous smile but wasn’t sure that he believed him.

After a few more minutes, Poe gave a big sigh. “We’d better get going before someone comes looking for us.”

They climbed to their feet, cleaned up and began straightening their clothing as best as they could. Then they ducked out from behind the crates only to find Snap and Chewbacca leaning on the wall in the corridor outside the storeroom.

“You owe me twenty credits,” Snap smugly told the Wookie who gave a loud noise of protest. “If you didn’t want to pay up, big guy, then you shouldn’t have accepted the bet.”

“You bet on us?” Poe asked, looking amused.

“I said that you’d be down here fucking,” Snap said. “Chewie thought that you’d have more self-control and could wait until we were back on the ship.”

Chewie growled and gave them both a disappointed look.

“You knew that we were…that we’ve been…you know, _intimate_?” Finn asked askance.

“So fragging adorable,” Snap said to Poe, nodding his head towards Finn, then he answered Finn’s question. “The two of you have been making googly eyes at each other for the past few days so, yes, we all know that you’re being _‘_ intimate’.”

“Everyone?” Finn stared at him. “Even Han?”

“Yes, even Ha…” Snap was interrupted as Rey came barrelling down the corridor towards them with the rest of the Falcon’s crew close behind her.

“We’ve got to go. Now!” She yelled. “They’re here!”

“Pfassk!” Poe swore. “Someone turned us in.”

Finn held in the urge to say ‘told you so’ and instead began to run too.

“Straight ahead, there’s a hatch in the floor. It’s a tunnel that will bring us out in the woods beyond your ship,” Maz shouted, running alongside Statura.

Snap reached the hatch first and quickly pulled it open, stepping back to help everyone climb down the ladder before following and closing the hatch behind them. The tunnel clearly hadn’t been used in years because the air was thick with dust and old cobwebs hung from the ceiling. As they all quickly made their way along the tunnel, there was the occasional muffled bang which made the ground shake and caused dirt to rain down on them.

“Those scum!” Maz seethed. “How dare they come here!”

The expression on her face spoke of vengeance and, even having only known her for a short time, Finn didn’t envy anyone who got in her way.

“The tunnel exit’s just up ahead,” Rey called back and Han made his way up to her.

He made a hand signal and the entire group stopped where they were while he stuck his head out of the exit to get the lay of the land.

“They’re concentrating their fire on the actual castle,” he told them, eliciting a growl from Maz. “If we’re quick and stealthy, we’ve got a straight shot to the Falcon. Hopefully before they notice us.”

Finn’s eyes flicked to Statura, wondering if he’d be able to move all that quickly with his stiff leg and he stepped closer, ready to help him if he needed to.

“Maz, are you coming with us?” Han asked and she shook her head.

“I’ve run this castle for a thousand years, no trumped-up Empire wannabes are going to run me off,” she scoffed. “You’ve got the co-ordinates I gave you. You head there and lie low. We’ll see each other again, Han Solo.”

“Be careful,” Han told her and then indicated for the rest of them to follow him.

The entire group crouched as low to the ground as they could, which wasn’t all that low for Chewbacca, and quickly made their way through the trees. Finn looked towards the castle and saw it completely surrounded by Stormtroopers. Bursts of fire emanated from the building as the artillery rounds hit.

“What was in those medical crates that they want this badly?” Karé wondered out loud. “There has to be a full battalion here, right?”

She looked back over her shoulder at Finn who nodded.

“At least. And that command shuttle over there,” he pointed at the black ship in a nearby clearing. “That means that there’s a high ranking official here. That’s a big deal; they never come on standard missions.”

“Just perfect,” muttered Han. “We’ve got ourselves a Big Deal.”

There was a particularly loud bang which made them all jump and Finn glanced over to see one of the castle towers completely collapse.

“We should have made Maz come with us,” he said, almost to himself. “There are too many of them here.”

“She’ll be fine,” Snap said from behind him. “You don’t live as long as she has without learning how to take care of yourself.”

Statura was beginning to slow and Finn automatically slowed with him. The man sent Finn a look to show that he knew exactly what he was doing but he didn’t complain so Finn kept sticking close to him. Poe smiled at him in an approving manner and Finn returned it. However, there was suddenly a shout from behind them that wiped the smile off all their faces; they’d been spotted.

“Run!” Han yelled, now jogging backwards so that he could shoot his blaster at the oncoming troopers.

A burst of laser fire went over Finn’s head and hit the tree to his left, causing him to stumble a little. Statura caught his arm and stopped him from falling, then pushed him to keep running. There was a familiar sound from overhead and Poe looked up to see a small transport carrier flying over them to land by the command shuttle. Another squadron of Stormtroopers filed out of it and these ones were close enough to intercept them before they reached the Falcon.

Han swore loudly and they all picked up the pace, determined to reach the ship first but they were dealing with laser fire from behind and off to the side now. Chewbacca paused long enough to sling Statura over his shoulder and resumed firing that impressive looking crossbow at the newly arrived troopers while Statura shot at the ones chasing them from behind.

“Who the kriff is that?” Jessika shouted and Finn looked across to see a familiar black figure stalking towards them.

“He’s the Big Deal,” Finn yelled back as he ducked around a large rock. “I don’t know his name but I’ve seen him on the Finalizer. I heard that he’s a Jedi.”

“A kriffing Jedi?” Han asked incredulously. “You’re kidding me!”

When Finn’s squad had first joined the Finalizer, a couple of the veterans had been put in charge of acclimatising them to their new surroundings. One of those veterans had warned them about the black masked Jedi; she’d said to avoid him if they could as he had a very quick temper and absolutely no problem with hurting anyone in his immediate vicinity when provoked. Luckily, the closest that Finn had got to him was at General Hux’s regular assemblies when the apparent Jedi just stood behind Hux and gave off an air of menace.

They’d almost reached the ship but the Troopers and the Jedi were closing in on them fast.

“Finn! Down!” Poe yelled and Finn dropped without thinking about it, narrowly avoiding a burst of laser fire.

Poe shot the trooper who had almost got Finn and then sent Finn a cheeky salute. Finn grinned at his lover as he stood and then they both turned back to the fight. Finn had lost sight of the Jedi but didn’t have time to worry about that as the troopers had almost reached them.

Statura called out tactics from where he was still over Chewbacca’s shoulder, which is how Finn found himself beside Rey, Jessika and Han, concentrating their fire on the Stormtroopers who were attempting to cut them off from the ship. They were just beginning to beat them back when suddenly there was a weird loud humming noise. Finn spun around and his eyes opened in horror when he saw the Jedi behind the oblivious Han, his lightsaber held in attack position.

Finn shouted Han’s name but could already see that there was no way Han could get out of the way in time. So he threw himself at the other man, pushing him to the ground just as pain exploded across his back. Finn screamed and dropped to the floor, darkness already rushing over him. Distantly he heard Poe shouting his name and Rey giving a distressed cry before everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

Poe heard Finn’s agonized scream and turned to see the Jedi slash his lightsaber across Finn’s back. Poe screamed his name as he watched Finn fall to the ground and immediately turned his fire on the Jedi, as did Han and Rey, while the others kept trying to hold off the Stormtroopers. The Jedi held up his hand and Poe watched in disbelief as all three of their shots froze in mid-air before their guns flew out of their hands to lie harmlessly on the ground behind the Jedi. Rey, looking as furious as Poe had ever seen her, immediately pulled a spare knife from somewhere and threw it at the Jedi. Evidently, he wasn’t expecting that and the knife sliced across the top of his arm. The Jedi yelled and lost control momentarily; he had to step to one side to avoid the laser fire which had become unfrozen. The Jedi recovered quickly though and, with a flick of his hand, sent Rey flying through the air to crash into Jessika.

Han dove for his blaster, which was still on the ground, but the Jedi somehow managed to make Han freeze in place, just as he had the laser bursts. Poe could see Han struggling to move but it was as if he was a puppet completely under the Jedi’s control. The Jedi raised his hand and Han began to rise from the floor until he was floating a few inches above it.

There was a horrible humming noise as the Jedi activated his lightsaber again and held it close enough to Han’s face that Poe could see the skin along his jaw start to blister. While the Jedi’s attention was entirely focussed on Han, Poe lunged for his own gun while trying not to look at Finn; if he didn’t look then he could keep clinging to the hope that Finn was still alive. As his fingers wrapped around the gun, Poe turned in mid-air, raising his arm and shooting at the Jedi before landing hard on his back.

His shot hit the Jedi in the arm, causing him to drop his lightsaber with a pained yell. Once again, his control slipped and Han fell to the ground, immediately grabbing the lightsaber and activating it. The Jedi backed up a few steps and then, with an audible snarl, retreated back into the woods.

As soon as the Jedi was out of sight, Poe ran to Finn, skidding to a halt on his knees next to him. The sight of the wound on Finn’s back and the smell of burnt flesh almost made him gag but he pushed it back and concentrated on the fact that he could see the tell-tale fall and rise that meant that Finn was still alive.

“Hold on, please just hold on,” he murmured, his hands stroking Finn’s arm.

“Get him back to the ship,” Han ordered and Poe realised that the rest of the crew had somehow managed to clear a path to the Falcon.

Chewbacca knelt in the dirt, allowing Statura to drop down from his shoulder, and then picked Finn up bridal style. The rest of them kept firing back at the Stormtroopers as they followed but Poe’s attention kept drifting to Finn which is why he didn’t see the black figure re-emerge from the trees next to them like a shadow, until it was too late. The Jedi fired at him with Han’s stolen blaster and Poe doubled over with a cry as the shot hit him.

Someone shouted his name but it seemed to come from far away as Poe lifted a hand from where it was clutching his stomach to see it covered in blood. He collapsed to his knees and a scream ripped from him as that jolted his body and caused the pain to intensify to a crescendo. Another shot hit the ground beside him, Poe realised that he was a sitting pelikki where he was and so dragged himself behind a large boulder.

He looked towards the ship and slumped slightly in relief when he spotted Chewbacca carry Finn onto the Falcon, followed by Rey, Karé and Jessika; the latter holding up her partner, who had apparently been shot too. Han and Statura stood on the ramp, firing out at the Stormtroopers who were getting closer every second, and Snap was behind another group of rocks just in front of the ship. Poe frowned, wondering why his friend wasn’t up on the ramp with the others then he realised that Snap was trying to come back for him. However, the Stormtroopers had clearly realised this and all concentrated their fire on him whenever he attempted to leave his shelter to get to Poe, forcing him to move back behind the rocks again.

Using the boulder, Poe Forced himself to his feet; gritting his teeth to hold in the scream threatening to let loose as pain wracked through his entire body. He tightened his grip on the blaster in his right hand and used his left hand to cover the wound on his stomach then he attempted to make it to Snap instead. His legs almost buckled during the first couple of steps but he kept going…three steps…four…then another shot hit him. He didn’t know how he knew that it was the Jedi again but as he crumpled to the ground he was certain that was who had taken him down.

It was over; the Stormtroopers were almost on them. Poe knew that he was just too far away from the ship for Snap to get to him quickly and if the crew stayed any longer to try then they’d all be captured and almost certainly executed. He caught Han’s eye from where he lay prone on the dirt.

“Go!” He yelled.

For a split second, Poe thought that Han was going to ignore him and get them all killed anyway but instead the other man nodded, anguish written across his face. At the confirmation that Han would get the rest of them to safety, Poe slumped in relief. His body had gone cold and numb, which probably wasn’t a good sign but at least he didn’t hurt anymore. He watched Chewbacca drag a struggling Snap up the ramp as if he was watching it through a haze. He saw Han push the protesting Statura into the ship and then turn back to stare unflinchingly at Poe as the ramp rose and eventually blocked him from view. When the Falcon began to take off, Poe started to laugh; they’d got away.

A shadow soon fell over him and a foot roughly kicked him until Poe rolled to his back and stared up at the Jedi who was clutching his own blaster wound.

The Jedi tilted his head as if studying Poe and then, in an odd mechanical voice, commanded, “Sleep!”


	10. Chapter 10

_Finn was back at Medical Base 5-874, the bright lights and stark white walls making him wince. He wasn’t in his uniform but nobody seemed to notice; Stormtroopers and medical officers walked right passed him as if they didn’t see him, which was fine by Finn because he needed to stay unnoticed until he could find a way off the base. What he really needed was a pilot, one who could fly a Tie Fighter, but there wasn’t going to be much chance of talking someone into helping him escape. Perhaps he could stow away on a cargo ship; and not get caught within the first minute this time._

_He headed towards the hangar bay. Or, at least, he tried to. But every corridor led to another corridor which looked exactly the same. He opened one of the doors, deciding that if he knew what type of rooms were in this zone of the base then he could figure out which direction he needed to go, but the door just opened onto another identical corridor. Finn decided to follow a couple of the medical officers, because they had to be headed to someplace that wasn’t a corridor, but he was only able to trail them so far before they just blinked out of existence. The same thing happened with the Stormtroopers and even the protocol droid that he followed. He tried to stop people to ask them how to get out but no one stopped and it became clear that they really couldn’t see or hear him. Out of desperation, Finn tried to grab one of the passing Stormtroopers but his hand went right through them._

_On and on, Finn ran along the endless corridor, shouting at people and trying to get them to notice him but no one ever did. Finally he slid down a wall and sat on the floor, exhausted and defeated._

_That was when he heard the loud humming noise. He raised his head to see the Jedi standing further down the corridor, lightsaber activated and staring right at him. A frisson of fear ran down his spine and Finn slowly pushed himself to his feet. The base workers were still walking up and down the corridor, seemingly unaware of either man and Finn idly wondered if the Jedi was just as unable to touch them as he was._

_Finn reached for his blaster and pointed it at the Jedi but, between one blink and the next, Poe was suddenly there._

_Finn stared at his lover in disbelief. “Poe?”_

_Poe grinned at him. “At least you’re safe. That’s all that matters.”_

_“What…?” Finn started but broke off with a cry of utter anguish when the blade of the Jedi’s lightsaber burst through Poe’s chest from behind._

_Finn ran forward and grabbed Poe as he fell. “No, no, no, no, no. Poe, don’t die. Please don’t die.”_

_Poe’s head lolled to one side, his eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling and Finn screamed, holding Poe against him with one hand as he lifted his blaster and shot at the Jedi again and again. But the shots did nothing. Instead the Jedi just turned and silently walked away._

_“Poe.” Finn dropped his gun and clutched Poe tighter. “Please wake up. I need you. You can’t die.”_

_Suddenly, Poe’s hands grabbed Finn’s head and despite the fact that Poe’s mouth didn’t move, Finn heard his voice in his mind as clear as a bell._

_“I’m not dead yet, buddy.”_

_\--_

Finn startled awake with Poe’s name on his lips.

“Easy, kid.” Han’s hand on his chest stopped Finn from rising off the pillows beneath him.

Finn blinked at him, his thoughts sluggish and fuzzy. Han brought a drinking tube to Finn’s lips and Finn greedily drank the blissfully cold water within, his mouth was dryer than the sands of Jakku.

“Better?” Han asked and Finn nodded.

His head was beginning to clear and over Han’s shoulder he noticed the stone walls of the room they were in and could hear the wind howling outside. He could also feel a distinct chill in the air, despite the fire roaring in the stone fireplace.

“Where are we?” Finn asked, coughing a couple of times before he could get it out.

“We’re staying with an old friend,” Han told him as he retook his seat next to the bed where Finn could now see a large burn mark on the side of his face. “How much do you remember?”

Finn frowned. “I remember the Jedi; he tried to attack you and I…”

“You saved my life,” Han said. “And you got hurt for it. No good deed and all that.”

“My back.” Finn remembered the overwhelming pain and that was pretty much the last thing he remembered.

Han nodded, leaning forward and bracing his arms on his knees. “You took a lightsaber to the back and, well, it did just as much damage as you’d think it would. It sliced right through your spine and it severed the spinal cord. I’m sorry, kid.”

Finn thought back to his time training with that doctor on the hospital base. A damaged spine was a death knell. It would render a Stormtrooper unable to walk and a Trooper that couldn’t walk was of no use to the First Order, they would be swiftly taken away and never seen again.

His eyes darted to his legs, hidden beneath a sheet and he tried to move them, nothing happened. There was suddenly pressure on his chest like something heavy was crushing him because nothing was happening. No matter how hard he tried to get one of his legs to move or even a toe to wiggle, they wouldn’t obey him; he couldn’t even feel anything below his waist. He started to breathe hard as panic set in, he couldn’t even sit up. Oh, Mother of Kwath! He was going to stay stuck like this forever.

“Kid? Come on, you’re going to be okay…. _Finn!_ ” Han yelled, grabbing his hand and Finn looked over at him, partly in shock because Han had never said his name before; in fact calling him ‘kid’ was new too, that was usually reserved for Poe and Rey.

“It’s going to be alright,” Han said. “I know that it doesn’t seem like that right now but there’s all sorts of technology that we can get to help you. In fact…”

Before Han could elaborate on that, the wooden door flew open and Snap burst into the room followed by an older man in a robe; the old friend, Finn assumed.

“Have you told him yet?” Snap all but snarled at Han causing Finn to recoil a little, he’d never seen Snap truly angry before.

“Wexley…” Han sighed wearily. “He’s just woken up. I’ve only just started explaining about his injuries…”

“He left Poe behind,” Snap told Finn, completely ignoring Han.

Finn’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that our _illustrious captain_ chose to save his own skin over that of one of his crew,” Snap ground out. “Over someone that was as close as family to him. And to the rest of us!”

“You left him? With the Stormtroopers and that…that Jedi?” Finn turned to Han who met his gaze with a sorrowful one of his own.

“He was already gone, Finn,” Han told him quietly. “He’d been shot twice; he couldn’t even get to his feet, let along make it back to the ship. He was dying and he knew that if we tried to rescue him then we’d get killed too. He told me to go and, Caraya save me, I did. I had to.”

“We could have saved him!” Snap yelled. “He wasn’t dead yet!”

Finn startled as the words of dream!Poe came rushing back to him.

_“I’m not dead yet, buddy!”_

But that was just a dream; probably his mind interpreting the arguments that had no doubt been taking place around him while he slept; judging from Snap’s reaction, at least.

Poe was gone. Even if he’d still been alive when the Falcon left, the First Order wouldn’t have left him that way.

Finn turned his face into his pillow as the grief washed over him and threatened to swallow him whole. He barely paid attention to anything around him and was only vaguely aware of Snap storming away and Han draping an extra blanket over him before he too left the room. Only BB8 remained, rolling forward and backward with a mournful noise before he settled beside Finn’s bed.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, staring at the ceiling. Poe was dead and Finn was a cripple. He swung from wishing that he’d never left the First Order, because then he wouldn’t be trapped in this bed feeling any of this pain, to obsessively replaying all the good things that had happened since he had left them. Snap returned after a while and sat on the edge of the bed. Finn grabbed his hand and pulled until Snap lay beside him; Poe had been Snap’s best friend and Finn knew that he was hurting just as much, if not more. The two men lay side by side, clutching onto each other’s hand as they silently mourned the man they had both loved.

At some point, Finn fell asleep and he found himself back in his dream, back on Medical Base 5-874.

_\--_

_He was in that stupid corridor again but this time the Jedi was in front of him, walking away. Finn grabbed his blaster and held it up in front of him but the Jedi turned a corner and disappeared from view. Finn hurried after him, determined to get revenge and some semblance of satisfaction, even if it was just in a dream. He ran around the corner just in time to see the Jedi turn another corner. And so it went, every time Finn rounded a corner after the Jedi, the Jedi disappeared around a different one. At least, in this dream the corridors were different. It actually felt like they were going somewhere rather than being trapped in a loop and if they were going somewhere then the Jedi had to eventually stop._

_Gradually, Finn realised that the Jedi was getting faster which made him pick up the pace too until he was running full out through the corridors and avoiding the other people even though he knew that he could probably just run right through them as he could in the other dream. When the Jedi stopped, Finn was running so fast that he skidded on the slick floor and hit the wall with a grunt. He expected some pain but it was a dream so, of course, there wasn’t any._

_Meanwhile, the Jedi had opened a door and entered a room which Finn quickly recognised to be one of the medical rooms where he’d been taken so that the medics could run their tests on him. Stepping inside, his eyes immediately went to the centre of the room._

_“Poe!” Finn ran to him, forgetting all about his mission to kill the Jedi._

_Poe was floating in a bacta tank, naked apart from a pair of briefs. He had a mask over his face so that he could breathe but he was clearly unconscious. There was a large blaster wound on his stomach and, as Finn circled the tank, he could see another one high on his shoulder._

_“You will tell me where they are,” the Jedi said suddenly, making Finn jump. At first he thought that the Jedi was talking to him but he was clearly talking to the unconscious Poe. “And then once we get FN-2187 back in the fold, the real fun will begin.”_

_Finn frowned. “What do you want me back for? I’m a deserter, you’re supposed to kill me where I stand.”_

_Then he rolled his eyes at himself because this was a dream; the First Order didn’t want him back, this was being made up in his head._

_“Don’t let them catch you, Finn.”_

_Finn spun around to see that Poe’s eyes were open and he was staring right at him. His voice sounded in Finn’s head, just as in the first dream, and it felt different somehow; more real._

_“Promise me that you’ll keep running and never stop. I can deal with anything as long as I know you’re all safe.”_

_“We’re safe,” Finn breathed, pressing his hand up against the glass of the tank._

_Poe repeated the gesture. “That’s all that matters.”_

_\--_

Finn sat straight up in the bed, covered in sweat and breathing hard.

“Wassat…? Finn…?” Snap stared up at him sleepily.

Finn looked back. “I had a dream about Poe.”

“Finn…”

“I know that this is going to sound crazy but it just felt so real. It was like he was right there, close enough to touch but there was glass between us and…”

“Finn!”

“ _What?_ ” Finn turned to the other man, a bit annoyed that he apparently wasn’t even going to listen to him but Snap just pointed at him.

“How the varp are you sitting up?”

Finn looked down at himself. That was a very good question; before he went to sleep, he couldn’t even roll onto his side.

“Adrenaline?” Finn tried, he had been excited about the dream after all.

Snap sat up too. “Try moving your leg.”

Finn pulled the sheet off his leg and, as before, concentrated and tried with all his might to move one of his legs but nothing happened. Snap slumped slightly.

“Sorry Finn, I thought for a moment there that…” He trailed off when Finn’s big toe suddenly moved. “Did you just do that?”

Sweat beaded on Finn’s forehead from the effort but he really had, he’d done that. He wiggled his toe again and Snap let out a hysterical laugh.

“That’s impossible!”

“I know,” Finn agreed, moving the toe again just because he could.

“Okay, hold still,” Snap told him, getting up onto his knees behind Finn.

Finn could feel him carefully peeling back the large dressing which covered almost his entire back.

“What in the universe…Finn…” Snap breathed.

Finn tried to look over his shoulder but obviously could see much. “What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s healing,” Snap told him. “This was one big gnarled, burnt mess but now…I mean, you’ve still got a nasty scar but it’s a hundred times better than it was. Wait here, I’m going to get the Admiral; he has to see this!”

With that Snap hopped off the bed and ran out of the room. Finn turned his attention back to moving his toes. By the time Statura arrived with the rest of the crew and the ‘old friend’ on his heels, Finn could move the first two toes on each foot.

“I don’t understand,” Statura murmured as he run his fingers down Finn’s back. “This shouldn’t happen.”

“Does this mean that he’s going to be okay?” Rey asked, her eyes red rimmed but she gave Finn an encouraging smile. “Will he be able to walk again?”

“I…I don’t know,” Statura told her, moving to Finn’s toes to see all of them wiggling now. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Maybe the injury just wasn’t as bad as you thought,” Karé suggested gently.

Finn could see a large dressing covering the side of her neck and also poking out from her sleeve, clearly he and Poe hadn’t been the only casualties during the firefight.

Statura gave her a sharp look. “I may not have medical training like Finn, here, but I’ve seen enough injuries to know what a paralysing one looks like. A severed spine is a severed spine, there’s no mistaking that.”

“And we all saw how bad his back looked,” Snap added. “Do you honestly think that it healed that much all by itself?”

“So what?” Jessika scoffed. “Did magic do this? Or..or _the Force_?”

Finn didn’t miss the way her eyes skittered to the ‘old friend’ for a moment as if she suddenly realised she may have offended him. But the man acted as if he hadn’t heard anything she’d said, he just studied Finn curiously. Finn wondered if he was another Force sensitive person like Poe and Maz; it was really getting a little absurd how many Force sensitive people Finn was stumbling across, they were supposed to be rare.

After his initial inspection of Finn’s wound, Han had been leaning against the wall seemingly preoccupied.

“Here’s a crazy thought…” he began.

“No one wants to hear your thoughts, old man,” Snap growled but Han ignored him.

“What if whatever it is that the First Order are trying so hard to get back wasn’t in the crates that Jessika stole?”

Finn frowned, confused as to what this had to do with what they were discussing. “What do you mean?”

Han turned to Jessika and Karé. “How long was it between you stealing the supplies and the First Order tracking you down on Tuanul? How long did you stay there?”

“A few standard months,” Jessika shrugged.

“See, that doesn’t seem as if they were trying very hard to me,” Han said. “That doesn’t seem ‘top priority’ tracking. But after Tuanul; suddenly holos of us were sent everywhere and the First Order were on our tail insanely fast.”

Chewbacca growled something and Han pointed at him.

“Right! We should’ve had at least a day on Takodana before they tracked us there!”

“What are you trying to say?” Rey asked.

Instead of replying, Han asked another question. “What changed after Tuanul?”

One by one, the group all turned to look at Finn.

He blinked at them. “Okay, that is when I joined you but Maz said that they were after something that came from Medical Base 5-874.”

“And you were at that base,” Snap pointed out. “Just before Jessika broke in, if my math is correct.”

“No, I’m not what they’re trying to get back,” Finn insisted. “Why would they? I’m just another stormtrooper. I worked sanitation and then I ran away during only my second actual mission. I am not worth all of this, you’re wrong.”

They all stared back at him not saying anything until Statura put a hand on his shoulder.

“Look at what you’re doing, right now, Finn.”

Finn frowned and looked down the bed. In his agitation, he was tapping one foot against the other.

“I think it’s safe to say that your healing is speeding up somewhat,” Statura said. “This isn’t normal, Finn. Tell us exactly what happened to you at Medical Base 5…”

“5-874,” Finn sighed. “I was told by my troop leader that my monthly physical had revealed that I was sick and I needed to go to the medical base.”

“Your whole troop or just you?” Statura asked.

“Just me. But when I got to the base there were another five sick Troopers who had been sent there too and we were all put in a ward together.”

“Had you met them before? Were they from your ship?” Snap asked and when Finn shook his head he mused, “So six of you got sick from the same thing even though you’d never met or been in close proximity before. Yeah, that’s bantha shab if ever I heard it.”

Statura clearly agreed. “What happened next?”

Finn thought back. “The medics would take blood from us two times a day and then give us pills to take. We had to perform endurance tests every three days but nothing like the ones in Trooper training. That was pretty much it. I was bored a lot.”

“Did you ever actually feel sick?” Karé asked. “Tired? Coughing? Mysterious pink boils appearing on you anywhere?”

“No but if my blood tests showed that I was then I had to be,” Finn replied. “Otherwise it would just be a waste of time.”

“Not unless you were sent there for another reason,” Han said. “Look, this medical base…from what you’ve said, it doesn’t sound like a normal hospital. Hospitals don’t have the highest levels of security and armed guards for the patients. I think that they did something to you there and that’s why you’re healing so fast and _that’s_ why they want you back.”

Was this what Maz had meant when she’d called him ‘unique’? Finn felt a sharp stab of pain as he remembered Poe trying to reassure him after that; telling him that Finn fit with him. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel Poe’s hand against his face.

The ‘old friend’ suddenly spoke. “This is all just speculation, Han. You know that there is a way to find out for sure.”

“Yeah, we could cut off the kid’s arm and see if it grows back,” Han said and Finn recoiled further back onto the bed just in case Han wasn’t kidding.

“You have to call Leia,” the ‘old friend’ continued as if Han hadn’t said anything. “She’s got spies everywhere and she’s your best bet at finding out what the First Order have been doing to their Stormtroopers.”

Han scrubbed a hand over his face. “ _You_ call Leia. She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“I don’t know why you continue to believe that. Call her,” the ‘old friend’ said firmly.

Chewbacca growled and Han gave him an incredulous look. “Oh, you’d like to see her? Would you really?”

When Chewbacca made a noise in the affirmative, Han threw his hands in the air and stomped out of the room with Chewbacca and the ‘old friend’ following close behind.

Statura continued his examination of Finn’s miraculous recovery, often shaking his head and murmuring about how impossible it was. Finn wondered if he was thinking about his own injury; it was probably difficult to witness someone healing so quickly when he had been Forced to use a cane for so many years.

“I’m clearly not an expert but I’d say that at this rate, you’ll be up and walking around by this time tomorrow,” Statura said when he finally stepped back.

Finn shook his head; seriously, what was going on? Han’s theory couldn’t possibly be right. Could it?


	11. Chapter 11

“…here. So, not only have you severely damaged FN-2187 but you let him go and brought us this…this…hoodlum instead.”

“I sense a strong connection to the Force within him. Mostly untapped and certainly untrained but there is definitely potential.”

Poe woke slowly. He could feel the tube down his throat and his hands automatically moved to his mouth to remove it but he felt sluggish and his hands felt like they were moving through mud. He Forced his eyes to open and realised that he was floating in a bacta tank. The room beyond the tank was bright white and clean and definitely First Order. There were a couple of men standing in front of the tank, the Jedi and a red haired officer, who were very clearly involved in an argument.

“I don’t care about untapped potential in a petty thief!” the officer exclaimed. “I care about the Stormtrooper that you very nearly bisected with that saber of yours.”

“FN-2187 will be fine,” the Jedi sounded bored of this argument, even with the mechanical distortion of his voice. “He will heal.”

“Exactly!” The officer cried, gesticulating with his hand. “And this merry band of smugglers will witness it. They will be able to tell others of what we have been working on here. It will ruin the entire project! Your orders were simple, bring FN-2187 back here alive and kill the rest of them.”

Poe didn’t understand. Finn was going to heal? That couldn’t be possible, Poe got a close-up look at that injury and, despite the fact that he desperately hoped otherwise, deep down he knew that Finn wasn’t going to recover from that.

“You don’t give me orders.” The Jedi crossed his arms. “Besides it was _your_ project, General Hux. And as I recall, _you_ were the one to send FN-2187 out into the field in the first place. Which means that his loss in on your head, not mine.”

“We shall see what the Supreme Leader has to say about that,” the officer, Hux, snarled and then he stormed out of the room.

The Jedi looked at Poe. “Listening to things you shouldn’t be? It’s not time for you to wake up yet.”

He pressed some buttons on the side of the tank and Poe instantly felt the effects of the sedative which was pumped into the tank. He struggled to keep his eyes open but soon drifted back to sleep.

\--

_Poe looked around at the unfamiliar terrain. He appeared to be on the side of a hill, on a roughly made stone path. It was night and the wind whipped around him but he didn’t feel cold. There was a tiny, flickering light in the distance which was as good a place to aim for as anywhere else._

_The path was very uneven and steep, and in the darkness, he stumbled more than a few times as he picked his way down it. Finally, he came upon a group of small stone huts around a flat area that had clearly held a lot of bonfires in its time. It wasn’t a bonfire that had led Poe to this little commune though, it was a light emanating from one of the huts._

_He quietly pushed open the door and stepped inside. There was a fireplace in the room, with a roaring fire that dappled the man asleep on the bed with a warm glow. He quickly crossed the room and stroked a hand down Finn’s face._

_The man made a noise of discontent at being woken but as soon as he opened his eyes, he sat up. “Poe…”_

_Poe grinned at him. “Hey buddy.”_

_Finn returned the smile but it soon faded. “Is this going to happen every time I fall asleep? Because it hurts so kriffing much when I wake up and remember that you’re dead.”_

_“I’m not dead,” Poe tried to reassure him. “I’m not sure why but I’m not.”_

_“You said that before,” Finn told him with a frown. “In the first dream.”_

_Poe tried to remember. He had a vague recollection of Finn visiting him and his hand pressed against the bacta tank but it was all very hazy. And now this was getting hazy too, there was a cloud creeping into the edges of his vision._

_“No, not yet,” Poe muttered. “I’m not ready to wake up yet.”_

_He yanked Finn forward and wrapped his arms around him but his arms met only air, Finn was already gone._

\--

Poe wasn’t sure how long he’d been…wherever the varp he was. He remembered little bits and pieces from times he’d woken up before being dragged back to sleep by whatever drugs they were pumping into him while he was in that tank. Also, he definitely remembered at least one dream about Finn but was sure that there had been more.

This time when he woke up, however, he was on a bed. Restrained but it felt good to be out of that damn tank. He was clearly still in some kind of First Order facility but there was no hum of engines so they weren’t on a ship. He had no idea why he’d been brought here and healed from his injuries instead of being left to die on Takodana.

He didn’t have much time to wonder because the Jedi entered the room. He pressed a switch on the wall and Poe’s bed began to rise, forcing Poe into a seated position.

“You will tell me where Han Solo has taken FN-2187,” the Jedi said.

“What no ‘hello, how are you?’?” Poe quipped, trying to get the Jedi off balance. “You know, if you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask. Although, I am taken so, _flattered_ but no thank you.”

“Tell me where they are or I will take it from you myself,” the Jedi insisted. “And, I promise, that will be far less pleasant for you.”

Poe feigned surprise. “Less pleasant than these luxury surroundings?”

The Jedi didn’t answer, instead he stared at Poe. For a moment nothing happened but then Poe felt a stabbing pain in his temple causing him to wince. The pain grew worse and Poe gasped, gripping onto the edge of the bed as much as his restraints would allow. Then suddenly the Jedi was in his head, Poe could feel him in there, could see the memories that the Jedi was pulling from him almost carelessly.

Learning to fly in his mum’s old A-Wing - dancing with Rey - fucking Snap - arguing with Han over the controls of the Falcon - his dad yelling at him through his bedroom door - kissing Finn…the Jedi stopped on that one.

“Well, this is interesting,” he mused. “You believe that you’re in love. And with FN-2187.”

“That’s not his name,” Poe ground out through gritted teeth. “Get out of my head!”

He struggled in his restraints while the Jedi chuckled. “ _Finn_. Not very imaginative.”

Poe stilled his struggles. If he had any hope of stopping this guy from going through all his memories and discovering that Maz knew exactly where they were, then he had to concentrate instead of panicking. He closed his eyes, slowed his breathing and focussed on the pain because that’s where the Jedi was, then he pushed with all his might.

The Jedi made a small sound of displeasure and the memory riffling sped up but Poe kept breathing and kept pushing until he fell back against the pillows, panting, and all the pain in his head was gone.

“Impressive,” murmured the Jedi before he spun on his heel and left the room in a swirl of black cape.

Poe slumped in relief. But he didn’t know how long he could keep this up if the Jedi kept trying to get into his head. He hoped that Maz had left Takodana, for a while at least, just in case. Because if the Jedi saw the correct memory and, as a result, they got to her then they could get to the Falcon.

It was a long time before the Jedi came back. Poe had been dozing when he felt that sharp pain in his temple again. He came instantly awake but before he could even try to focus, the Jedi was going through his memories again; this time with more of a purpose. But, whereas Poe had expected him to concentrate his efforts on the Falcon and the events on Takodana, the Jedi went deeper.

Crying as he watched his parents fly away again, leaving him alone with his grandmother – getting caught breaking into a junker’s yard to steal a speeder – his mother’s funeral pyre – seeing Plutt beat a grubby and clearly starved Rey half to death – Chewbacca explaining how Han’s son had died – watching Finn take that lightsaber to the back…

It was that last memory that made Poe see red. This man, this Jedi, standing in front of him, had hurt Finn and he intended to hurt all of Poe’s crew. Not just hurt them, kill them. And if he thought that Poe was just going to lie there and let him do that, if he thought that he could wear him down, then he had another thing coming. He was going to fight him and if that meant that he would die doing it then so be it; he’d already accepted his death while lying in the dirt on Takodana.

Gathering his anger to him, with every last little bit of strength he had and with a cry of pure rage, Poe pushed the Jedi from his mind. Then he kept pushing. The Jedi staggered back a little with a grunt but Poe kept going. Suddenly the room around them changed; it was still clearly a First Order room but it was more of an office than a medical ward. The Jedi was in front of Poe, fighting against him, but he was also standing off to the side, talking to that Hux guy again.

Poe was in the Jedi’s memories.

“Explain to me again why you sent one of the test subjects out on a raid,” the memory Jedi was asking.

Hux rolled his eyes as if he’d already been through this more times than he felt he needed to. “We need to observe how he would deal with getting injured out in the field. It’s all well and good, slicing open an arm within a controlled environment but that doesn’t take into account the adrenaline and general unpredictability of a firefight. Would that cause him to heal more quickly or more slowly? Perhaps the increased blood flow inherent from a heightened situation would actually cause the advanced healing not to kick in at all. We can’t know these variables until they have been tested.”

The memory Jedi tilted his head a little. “And what variables caused you to lose him, exactly?”

“It was supposed to be an easy mission. We capture a wanted fugitive and during the ensuing scuffle, FN-2187 gets ‘accidentally’ shot by friendly fire which Captain Phasma assured me would be enough to maim but not kill. No one could have foreseen the firepower that a supposed religious settlement held or that the unexpected battle would cause Phasma to lose track of her charge. Nowhere in any of his psychological exams did the possibility of FN-2187 defecting ever arise,” Hux huffed. “We can only hypothesize that the treatment itself may have caused a disruption to his training; which is another reason why we need him back here. We need to study this anomaly and prevent such a thing from happening in the future.”

“A disruption to his training; is that what you’re calling it?” The memory Jedi shook his head.

“Look! FN-2187 was one of only two troopers who survived the treatment; if this project has any hope of proceeding then we need him back here for continued study,” Hux snarled. “Are you going to help get him back or not?”

The memory Jedi looked as though he was seriously thinking it over before he said, “Give me a transport and two battalions; I’m going to Tuanul. These followers of _The Church of the Force_ should have crawled back out of their hidey holes by now; they won’t be expecting us to return so soon.”

“They won’t tell you anything,” Hux pointed out.

“I don’t care.” The memory Jedi shrugged. “Get a holo prepared for all crew members of this YT-1300 freighter; a ship like that still flying, it shouldn’t be hard to find out who they are. Put FN-2187 on the holo too along with a reward for the capture of them all. They’re going to be responsible for the upcoming massacre at Tuanul.”

Poe cried out upon seeing the matter of fact way the two men had arranged the murder of his friends. He pushed even more. He wanted to rip this Jedi apart from the inside out, he wanted to cause him pain in a way that he had never wanted before but would be happy to administer now. Just as long as the Jedi paid for what he’d done.

Suddenly the Jedi began to laugh. Just as abruptly, the Jedi drove Poe out of his mind so completely and with such power that Poe realised that he hadn’t pushed his way into the Jedi’s mind on his own merit; the Jedi had let him in.

He sagged back against the bed, all his strength drained, and the Jedi loomed over him.

“That was a good start. There is a lot of anger and pain in you, my master will be most pleased.”

“What are you talking about?” Poe wheezed.

“The power that you just felt, that I allowed you to wield over me, that was simply a taste of what you could become when you learn to harness the power of the Force,” the Jedi told him. “You are to become my apprentice and together with my master, we will bring the galaxy to its knees.”

Poe blinked at him, the Jedi’s meaning taking a moment to sink into his exhausted mind. “You want me to become a Jedi? _Are you kriffing insane?_ You slaughtered my friends and you’re actively hunting down people who I consider to be my family. Why the varp would you think I’d join with you?”

“Why would you believe that I’m giving you a choice?” The Jedi laughed again. “Rest now. We will continue your training tomorrow.”

“Svaper!” Poe yelled after him as he swept out of the room.

He knew that he was Force sensitive, he had been since he was a kid, but a Jedi? He couldn’t be that powerful. But, then again, this Jedi didn’t seem the type to waste his own time. He’d clearly seen something in Poe that he thought he could exploit for his own ends. For the hundredth time, Poe tested his restraints, looking for any give that he could use to get free but there was nothing. He was stuck there at the mercy of an insane Jedi.


	12. Chapter 12

_There was no surprise to Finn when he closed his eyes in his stone room and opened them to the medical base. This time, Poe was tied down to a bed instead of floating in a bacta tank so Finn quickly undid the restraints._

_“Back here again,” he commented as he freed Poe’s hands and started on his feet._

_“I prefer wherever you are,” Poe replied, rubbing his wrists. “The scenery’s nicer.”_

_It really was. As Statura had predicted, Finn was able to walk around with the aid of Statura’s spare cane by the end of the next day. He’d gone outside for some fresh air and walked up the path a little to take in the view. He’d never seen anything like it; which wasn’t really surprising as he’d spent his life in First Order ships and bases like this._

_“Is this real? Finn asked Poe. “Because the more it happens the more real it feels. Or am I just losing my mind?”_

_“I don’t know,” Poe admitted. “I thought that they were just dreams but now…”_

_“Now what?” Finn frowned at the troubled look on Poe’s face and Poe just shook his head and didn’t answer._

_Finn sat beside Poe on the bed and pulled him into a hug, drinking in the warmth and the feel of Poe against him even if it was just a dream._

_“You know, there is a way that we could find out for sure,” Poe said suddenly. “Tell me something about the First Order, something that I couldn’t possibly know and then I can try and find out if it’s true. You know, if I ever get out of this room.”_

_Finn thought. “Well, you’re on Medical Base 5-874. So what do I remember about this place?”_

_Poe sat up and gave him a surprised look. “The base Jessika broke into? Where you were?”_

_“Uh huh.” Finn nodded. “Okay, during the night sector the air filtration system runs a maintenance check on itself. So you’ll be able to hear a break in the whirring followed by three quick beeps before it comes back on again.”_

_“Okay, well that’s definitely not something I’d have come up with by myself,” Poe said. “I’ll listen out for it. Right, you…get my jacket form my quarters; the leather jacket I was wearing on Cyrkon? In the inside pocket, there’s a tiny carved doll of a tauntuan. It’s supposed to bring me luck so I guess I really should have worn the jacket to Maz’s.”_

_Poe gave a rueful chuckle and Finn was hit by a wave of longing and grief._

_“That damn tauntuan had better be in your jacket, Dameron,” he said. “Or I’m going to be pissed.”_

_\--_

Finn woke up with the sound of Poe’s laughter in his ears. He gingerly got out of bed as his legs were still a little shaky, and grabbed the blanket to wrap around his shoulders to use as protection from the wind. Grabbing hold of his loaned cane, he made his way out of the hut with BB8 following closely behind; the droid had barely left his side since Poe’s death. The dawn was still a little way off but the sky had begun to lighten which helped as Finn carefully picked his way down the steep path. Each step strengthened his legs and by the time he’d reached the little cove where Chewbacca had landed the Falcon, the cane was only needed for the trickier steps.

The ship was surrounded by those little creatures that were so plentiful on this planet. Rey called them porgs but Finn wasn’t sure if that was their actual name or just what she’d decided to call them. They were cute though and very friendly. A few of them followed him up the ramp and he had to shoo them away to stop them coming into the ship.

He quickly made his way to Poe’s room, trying not to get creeped out by the darkened and too-still ship. In Poe’s room, he dropped the cane and immediately went to the storage under the bed, digging through for the jacket. Yanking it out he searched for the inside pocket and when he found it his fingers wrapped around a small hard object. Finn took a deep breath before pulling the tiny carved tauntaun into his hand.

Poe was alive.

“Poe’s alive,” he said out loud. “R’iia’s shorts, he’s still alive.”

BB8 began trilling excitedly and rolled in circles while Finn whooped in celebration.

They quickly left the ship and began the steep climb back to the huts; he only realised about half way up that he’d left Statura’s cane behind on the Falcon but figured that he could go back and get it another time. As he grew closer to the huts, he could hear raised voices coming from one of them. The door was open and he could see that the argument was between Han and his old friend, who had turned out to be Luke Skywalker – _the_ Luke Skywalker; the one who killed Darth Vader.

“…think it’s about time that you stopped being mad at me.”

“Mad, who’s mad?” Han shrugged. “I’ve only been your best friend for thirty years and yet after you up and disappeared on us all, you trusted _Maz Kanata_ with your whereabouts and not me. What the pfassk could I possibly be mad about?”

Luke sighed. “Maz…”

“…Is a kriffing pirate queen!” Han shouted.

“You know what? No.” Luke stood up. “You left first, Han. After Ben died…”

Han jabbed a finger into Luke’s chest. “Don’t you say his name!”

“After Ben died…” Luke continued calmly as if Han didn’t look moments away from punching him. “You pulled away. You started avoiding me. You would deliberately take jobs that meant you wouldn’t be around whenever I visited you and Leia. Before I ‘disappeared’, when was the last time we were even in the same room together?”

Han didn’t answer, just turned away and in so doing, spotted Finn outside the door. “You! Were you listening to us, you little…”

“Poe’s alive,” Finn interrupted before Han could get going on a rant that clearly had nothing to do with Finn and everything to do with whatever was going on between him and Luke.

Han looked like he’d been slapped. “What did you just say?”

“He’s alive and he’s at Medical base 5-874,” Finn told him. “Look, I know that this is going to sound crazy, like _really crazy_ , but I’ve been having these dreams. About Poe. And they were dreams, even when I was in them I knew they were a dream but they felt so real. In the last one, we decided to prove it one way or the other. We both told each other something that we couldn’t possibly know to see if it was true. Poe told me that he had a small carving of a tauntaun in one of his jacket pockets and look…”

Finn held up the carving and Han took it from him.

“I made this for him when he was just a kid, about six or so,” Han said, turning the figure over in his hand. “I didn’t know that he still had it.”

“Don’t you see? There’s no way that I could have known about that,” Finn told him. “That means that the dreams are real. I’m really talking to Poe in them.”

“That’s…”

“What the varp is going on in here?” Snap wandered into the hut. “People are trying to sleep and you lot keep shouting. Finn, where’s your cane?”

“I left it on the Falcon.”

Snap glared at him. “You walked all the way down to the cove and back? You’re not a hundred percent yet, Finn, you could’ve fallen and broken your neck. We’ve had enough death around here lately.”

“But not Poe’s apparently,” Luke commented and Finn rushed to fill Snap in on the dreams and the tauntaun and the proof.

“You’re not serious?” Snap looked like he didn’t quite know if he believed Finn or not.

“Is this because of the whole magical healing thing?” Han asked, still fiddling with the toy.

“I don’t think so. We’re pretty sure that the First Order did this to Finn and telepathy over large distances, while definitely useful, isn’t something they’d require from their Stormtroopers,” Luke replied. “The dreams are the key. It’s not just telepathy; it’s in the form of dreams. Like a Force vision.”

Finn frowned. “Maz said that Poe is Force sensitive.”

Luke smiled. “He’s a little more than that. Many years ago, I flew on a mission with his mother, Shara, to retrieve fragments of a great tree, a Force sensitive tree which used to grow in a Jedi temple. One fragment, I planted here.” Luke pointed out of the door at a giant tree at the top of the hill they were on. “The other part, Shara planted in her garden. Poe grew up with that tree, climbing it and playing on it. It served to amplify the Force sensitivity which he was already born with.”

Han stared at Luke. “How would you know that? You haven’t seen him since he was a child.”

“Leia has been keeping watch on him from afar; part of a promise she made to Shara before she died,” Luke told him. “Shara was the one who told her about Poe and the tree.”

“So you’ve been in contact with Leia too.” Han turned away angrily.

“She’s my sister,” Luke pointed out, reasonably.

“Let’s get back on track here,” Snap interjected. “So you think that Poe is somehow using the Force to talk to Finn in his dreams? That’s what you’re saying?”

“Yes,” Luke said and then frowned slightly. “Although I’m not sure that he knows that he’s doing it.”

Snap stared at him for a long moment before nodding. “Okay then. I’m not going to argue about the Force with Luke Skywalker.”

“So, how do we get him back?” Finn asked.

Luke suddenly grinned and it changed his whole person. “We do have some experience sneaking into enemy territory.”

Han growled and pointed a finger at him. “I’m too damn old to dress as a Stormtrooper.”

“I think that I have an idea,” Snap said. “But we’re going to need another ship. And Jessika Pava.”


	13. Chapter 13

Poe had finally been moved from that bed into a cell where he could at least walk around. Except, he wasn’t doing much walking at the moment, instead he was sat on the floor with his head in his hands. He had just had another session with the Jedi who continued to pull up his worst memories. Anger, fear and hatred all led to the dark side; all children who grew up after the war knew that. And the Jedi was forcing Poe to experience all of these emotions; even if the hatred he felt was directed towards himself.

He couldn’t stop replaying an argument that he’d once had with his father. His father couldn’t understand how Poe had grown so out of control since his mother had died and Poe had cruelly replied that it was his fault. He’d claimed that his Kes hadn’t been around enough when he was a child, not just during the war, but when he was back home. Shara had spent all her time with him but Kes always had a new cause to fight for. The argument had ended when Poe had spat that he wished Kes had died instead of Shara.

Poe could still see the hurt on his father’s face and despite the fact that he’d apologised almost immediately, their relationship had never been the same. He really did hate himself for that. Hate which he really should be trying to push away right now to concentrate on something good but he was just too exhausted.

He leaned his head back against the wall. There was the sound of his cell door being unlocked and he almost sobbed out of pure frustration. It was too soon, he couldn’t go through another session yet.

A couple of Stormtroopers entered the room, rifles held against their chests and Poe could see another couple standing guard outside.

“Come with us, we’re taking you to General Hux,” one of them ordered.

Poe frowned. He hadn’t seen Hux since that day when he was in the bacta-tank. He had the distinct impression that Hux had entirely washed his hands of having anything to do with the Jedi’s new ‘apprentice’.

“Get to your feet!” the other Stormtrooper demanded and Poe sighed.

With effort, he managed to stand up and wearily held his hands out for the cuffs to be placed on him. He’d fought against that once and the head wound that he’d received from the rifle butt to the skull had required another trip to the medical lab. With a jab to the shoulder from one of the Stormtroopers, he made his way outside the room. Only the two that had entered his cell accompanied him on his walk down the corridor, the other two stayed outside his empty cell.

“Turn left,” one of the Troopers instructed and Poe frowned when that resulted in them being in a small, hidden alcove.

The Troopers removed their helmets and Poe slumped in relief when he realised it was Finn and Han. Then he immediately tensed again.

“No, no, no. You can’t be here,” he told Finn. “They’re after you, not any medicine…”

“Because I can heal quickly. Yeah, we know,” Finn interrupted, waving a hand to indicate his clearly uninjured body. “You didn’t honestly think that I was going to leave you here after I found the tauntaun, did you?”

Han snorted as he undid the cuffs. “We did try to point out that the rest of us were fully capable of mounting a rescue while he stayed in a safe place, thank you very much, but he said that if we left him behind he’d just find a way to follow us anyway.”

Poe jumped when a First Order officer suddenly turned into the alcove and then did a double take when he realised that it was Snap in a stolen uniform.

“He couldn’t fit into a Stormtrooper uniform,” Han whispered to Poe and Snap glared at him.

“You’re testing the tensile strength of your own there, Solo,” he hissed, causing Poe to look between the two men in surprise at the animosity he could sense. “I’ve entered Jessika’s programme into the security console and she’s waiting for us at the exit point. Dameron, I’m so happy to see you that I’d kiss you but that might upset your boyfriend.”

“Did you find the files we needed?” Finn asked and Snap shook his head.

“Not all of them. You were right; I’ll need to get your reports directly from the medical archive.”

“Yeah, that did seem too easy,” Han drawled. “Okay then, plan B. Snap, I’m with you. You two, head straight for the exit and Pava; do not make me come looking for you idiots.”

Finn and Poe nodded, then Finn and Han put their helmets back on and they all made their way back into the corridor. To anyone not paying any attention, Poe’s hands were still cuffed in front of him but the cuffs weren’t locked anymore and it would take a flick of the wrist to be free of them completely. Snap walked a little way in front of them, seemingly absorbed in reading the device in his hand, with Han beside him as if he was Snap’s guard. Soon, Snap and Han turned off onto another corridor while Finn and Poe kept on walking straight ahead.

Poe dropped his head a little to give an air of defeat but he carefully scanned the area for any sign of the Jedi, who had to be still around here somewhere. A Stormtrooper in a blindingly polished chrome uniform, complete with some kind of shoulder cape appeared at the end of the corridor and Finn make a low groaning noise, deep in his throat.

“Change of plans,” he murmured quietly so that only Poe could hear him. “Turn right, now!”

The two of them turned into another corridor and, out of the corner of his eye, Poe watched as Finn kept looking back over his shoulder.

“Someone you know?” He asked quietly.

Finn nodded. “My old captain, Phasma. She is genuinely terrifying and we do not want to have a run in with her. Kriff!”

Poe turned his head enough that he could see that the shiny Stormtrooper had followed them into the new corridor. He cursed internally. He remembered Hux mentioning a Captain Phasma during his little trip into the Jedi’s mind; she was supposed to have been responsible for getting Finn injured in Tuanul before she’d lost him. He couldn’t imagine that she’d be particularly pleased to see him now.

“Okay, here’s what we do,” Finn said. “There are some elevators coming up. We get in, go up a couple of floors to get away from her and then come straight back down.”

Finn must have studied some kind of blueprint of the base; no doubt one that Jessika had managed to get hold of before her break-in, because the elevators were just where he said they’d be. The both of them quickly entered one and Finn hit the control panel to move them. Just as the doors were almost closed, a shiny hand stopped them and the doors reopened to reveal Captain Phasma standing there.

She climbed into the elevator with them and entered her own destination into the control panel. She waited until they were moving before turning to Finn.

“Trooper, where are you taking this prisoner?”

“I was instructed to take him to sector D, sir,” Finn snapped off obediently.

Phasma hummed. “And who gave you this instruction?”

“Commander Soumaf, sir.”

“Commander Soumaf transferred off this base a month ago, trooper. Try again.” She tilted her head as she studied him. “What is your designation?”

There was an infinitesimal pause before Finn answered her. “GV-3743, sir.”

“Remove your helmet.” Phasma demanded, hitting something on the control panel that caused the elevator to stop moving.

“Sir?”

Phasma subtly adjusted her stance so that her blaster was in easy reach. “That is an order, trooper.”

Poe felt like his heart was beating out of his chest as he watched Finn remove his helmet and stare at Phasma defiantly.

“ _FN-2187_ ,” she hissed and she pulled her blaster and pointed it at him. “The traitor!”

“Traitor?” Finn scoffed. “I guess that I’d rather be a traitor than a murderer.”

“I should kill you where you stand,” she told him. “Fortunately for you, Hux wants you alive. Or unfortunately for you, considering what he has planned. Pretty soon, you’ll be begging for death and that will be good enough for me.”

She reached out to start the elevator again and while her attention was split, Poe snapped his wrists free of the cuffs and knocked Phasma’s blaster out of her grip. Finn had his blaster out and pointed at her before she could even regain her balance.

“What was that you said? Begging for death?” Finn asked. “I don’t think so, Phasma. Who’s the bantha fodder now, huh? You stuck-up, sleemo bucket-brain.”

Poe fought a smile at Finn’s crowing, clearly this was something that he’d been holding in for a while. “Finn…we don’t have time for this.”

“Fine,” Finn said before adding. “Your uniform looks ridiculous and who wears something that shiny into battle, moron?”

Poe picked up Phasma’s blaster and used it to knock her out.

“Having fun?” he asked Finn as they both moved her to a spot on the elevator that would hopefully be a little out of view when the doors opened.

“That was pretty fun,” Finn admitted and then put Poe’s cuffs loosely over his wrists again.

Finn put his helmet on and restarted the elevator.

“How long before someone finds her?” Poe asked and Finn winced.

“Not long,” he admitted. “We just have to hope that no-one’s waiting to get…”

He trailed off when the doors opened to reveal an officer waiting. The officer frowned at the fact Finn and Poe had frozen in place and then his eyes dropped to see the unconscious Phasma tucked in the corner. He opened his mouth to shout but Finn grabbed him, pulled him into the elevator and knocked his head into the wall until he fell to the floor beside Phasma.

Poe glanced out of the elevator to make sure that no one had seen anything but the corridor was relatively empty.

“Maybe we should get off here and find another way down,” he suggested. “With the way our luck is going right now, we’re likely to run into someone else we need to knock out if we stay in here.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Finn agreed. “If we keep heading in the direction of the exit point, we should come across more elevators on our way.”

Poe resumed his previous dejected pose as Finn guided him through the hallways. Several minutes later, a klaxon began to sound and red lights started to flash.

“Pfassk!” Poe swore, quietly.

Either they’d found Phasma and the nameless officer or Han and Snap had done something to draw attention to themselves.

“Hey you! Stop where you are!” A voice shouted from behind them and Poe turned to see a couple of Stormtroopers running towards them.

Okay, so they’d found Phasma.

“Stay behind me,” Finn told him as Poe ditched the cuffs and grabbed Phasma’s blaster from Finn’s spare holster. “They want me alive.”

“They also know that you can be shot and heal from it,” Poe pointed out. “Maybe we should both just avoid getting hurt this time.”

“Right,” Finn nodded as they both fired at the Stormtroopers and quickly took them down. “Let’s keep going to the exit point.”

They both ran down the corridor in the direction they’d been headed, but skidded to a halt when they spotted a whole squad of Stormtroopers just around the corner.

“Have you got another plan?” Poe asked.

They hadn’t been noticed by the Stormtroopers before they’d ducked back out of view but they couldn’t stay where they were. They clearly couldn’t get passed them and they couldn’t go back the way they’d come. Finn looked around as if trying to orientate himself with the base plans that he’d seen.

“Hangar bay!” Finn exclaimed and grabbed Poe’s arm, pulling him along down yet another hallway. “You said that you could fly anything, right?”

“Right.” Poe suddenly grinned despite the situation. “And I’ve always wanted to have a go in a Tie-Fighter.”

They quickly made their way towards the hangar bay, occasionally jumping into alcoves as they heard the sound of running footsteps coming their way. Obviously, no one knew where to look for them because the Troopers were running passed in all directions.

“I hope Snap and Han are okay,” Poe muttered. “We have to figure out a way to tell them to go once we’re in the ship.”

“We have to get on the ship first,” Finn murmured back.

They finally reached the hangar bay and watched for an opportunity to get passed the maintenance workers, who were all seemingly unaffected by the chaos happening on the rest of the base. Poe’s eyes were immediately drawn to a familiar looking black command shuttle in the middle of the bay.

“We’re taking that one,” Poe told Finn pointing to the Jedi’s ship. “Space capable and it should have communications.”

As Poe watched several small droids pulled storage containers, obviously containing fuel and other such essentials, from storage rooms to the Tie-Fighters. He could duck down alongside one and get to the Tie Fighters without being spotted – as long as no-one was looking too closely. Then they’d have to put their heads down and sprint the rest of the way to the shuttle.

Finn nodded when Poe outlined the plan. “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t see another way unless we try and bluff our way through. Which hasn’t gone well for us so far.”

“Okay, make yourself look big,” Poe instructed and then crouched down behind him.

Finn held his rifle in such a way that his elbows stuck out to the side in an effort to try and shield Poe then he strode into the hangar bay as if he had a reason to be there. Poe stuck as close as he could without tripping Finn up and they made their way to the nearest storage container. The entire time, Poe was expecting someone to spot him but he was able to jump out from behind Finn and run, bent almost double, alongside the storage container. It wasn’t until they were in touching distance of the nearest tie fighter that a shout went up and blasters began being fired in their direction.

“Run!” Yelled Finn as he broke into a sprint, firing back at the workers over his shoulder.

Poe reached the shuttle first and ran up the ramp, hitting the button to close the door once they were both inside. They scrambled into the cockpit and Poe looked at the unfamiliar controls.

“Okay, it can’t be too different from other ships,” he muttered to himself as Finn threw himself into the seat behind him. “Let’s try this.”

He flicked a switch and nothing happened.

“Poe…” Finn said in a warning voice and Poe looked up to see the large number of Stormtroopers approaching them.

Poe tried another switch and some lights came on, which was encouraging. A third switch apparently activated one of the lasers. That did have the welcome effect of causing the Stormtroopers to scatter as a few fuel cells exploded nearby.

“Good job,” Finn said, fiddling with his own controls to find his weapons.

“Yeah, let’s pretend that was on purpose.” Poe winked at Finn and then cheered as the latest button pushed, started the engine.

Once he knew where that was, the foreign layout fell into place and Poe was able to get the shuttle in the air and turned around, ready to leave.

“The doors are closing,” Finn pointed out, unnecessarily.

“Yeah, I can see that, buddy,” Poe replied. “Shoot them!”

“Right, I’m on it!” Finn told him, still pushing buttons until a hatch on the console opened and a joystick rose from it. “Yes!”

Grabbing hold of the joystick, Finn made short work of shooting the doors to make a large enough space for Poe to manoeuvre out of. Just. There was a horrible, high pitched screeching noise and some sparks as one of the doors scraped the side of the shuttle. But then they were out of the base and through the atmospheric force-field surrounding it.

There was a loud bang and the ship shook suddenly.

“We’ve got Tie-Fighters on our tail,” Finn told him, taking aim with his blaster cannons.

Poe took a moment to figure out which of the controls was for the deflector shield and once he got that up, he pulled a headset on. He barely had to think about what frequency to set it to before he started talking.

“Dameron to Millennium Falcon, do you read me?”

There was a burst of static and then suddenly Rey was yelling at him. “Poe? Oh, thank Shiraya! Are you okay? Where are you?”

Poe winced at the volume of her excitement but couldn’t deny that it was great to hear her voice. “Me and Finn are in a stolen command shuttle…”

There was a loud whoop from next to him as Finn destroyed two tie destroyers simultaneously.

“Can you get hold of Snap and Han? Tell them not to wait for us and get off the base immediately,” Poe instructed Rey.

There was muffled talking and then Rey came back. “Karé’s contacting Jessika now, she’ll get them out. Okay, you need to get to Kajown, it’s a nearby moon; that’s where we’re waiting but make sure no one follows you. Finn’s got the co-ordinates.”

As Rey signed off, Finn managed to destroy a few more fighters but there were definitely a group of obstinate ones that actually looked as though they knew what they were doing. No matter, how many sharp turns Poe made, they stayed on his six and didn’t get in Finn’s crosshairs.

“I think it’s time for one of those daring manoeuvres you’ve bragged so much about, Dameron,” Finn suggested.

Poe looked at him and grinned. “Get ready, buddy.”

He cut the engine and the ship ground to an immediate halt. To avoid crashing into the shuttle, the fighters had to suddenly bank to one side. The two who took the left flew directly into Finn’s target scope and he wasted no time taking them out. Three to go.

Poe glanced briefly at Finn to make sure that his seatbelt was secure before he restarted the engine and chased down the remaining fighters. Finn destroyed another one as they came up behind it but, as expected, the remaining two quickly returned to evasive manoeuvres and stopped Finn from getting a weapons lock. Poe yanked the controller back, causing the shuttle to fly down and below the fighters. Then using a manoeuvre, he hadn’t used since he’d been a kid in that A-Wing, he jerked the controller sharply to one side, essentially causing the ship to roll upside down.

Finn cried out as that suddenly brought one the remaining fighters right into his line of view. He made the shot, hitting one or its wings clean off and causing the fighter to spin out of control, directly into the last remaining fighter.

“Yes! We got them!” Finn yelled with another loud series of whoops.

Poe got the shuttle straightened up and then spun around in his seat so that he could yank Finn into a hard kiss.

“You got me,” he breathed against Finn’s lips, hardly daring to believe that they’d actually got away.

He forced himself to back off; the base was bound to send more ships after them soon so he activated the thrusters to get them away and busied himself with looking for the tracking beacon that the First Order was bound to have put on a shuttle this nice. It took three passes before he finally discovered it deep under the console. He ripped it off and, once he was sure that the light had stopped blinking, threw it over his shoulder.

“Rey said you knew the co-ordinates to them,” Poe told Finn.

“Right,” Finn leaned over his shoulder to enter them into the navigation controls. He pressed a kiss to the soft skin behind Poe’s ear, causing him to shiver. “I’ve missed you, Poe.”

Poe smiled and relaxed back into his seat. “I’ve missed you too.”


	14. Chapter 14

The Falcon was waiting in a deep canyon on the moon, just where it had been the last time Finn saw it. Poe eased the shuttle down next to it; after much assuring over the comm. that it was actually them and not the Jedi in there. Rey was running down the ramp before it had fully lowered and threw herself at Poe, wrapping her legs around his waist and burying her head in shoulder.

“I thought you were dead,” Finn overheard her whispering to him, once he’d put his arms around her and steadied his balance.

“I’m okay, Rey-rey,” Poe replied just as quietly. “I swear it.”

“You’d better be,” Rey said. “You’re not leaving me with Han and Snap like that again.”

“I promise.” Poe tightened his hug for moment until she nodded.

She didn’t move though so Poe had to carry her into the ship where Chewbacca immediately picked them both up with a loud howl of joy and spun them around until Rey laughingly yelled that she was going to throw up. As soon as Chewbacca put them back down and Rey had staggered away a few steps to lean on a crate, Statura stepped forward and gave Poe a big hug of his own. He whispered something in Poe’s ear that Finn didn’t catch but that made Poe’s eyes watery for a moment. The entire time this was going on, BB8 was speeding in a circle around them all and making excited beeps.

It warmed something in Finn to see how much love this crew had for Poe and each other. This was truly a family, one that he was so glad that he’d stumbled across that day.

“Are the others back yet?” Finn asked Karé, who’d come to stand beside him.

“They’re on the way. Jessika got Han and Snap out without too many problems,” she told him. “Apparently the both of you caused such a distraction that no-one paid any attention to them.”

Finn snorted. “Glad we could help.”

“ _I’m_ glad we didn’t have to use the contingency plan,” Karé said quietly.

Finn made a murmur of agreement without taking his eyes off Poe. After Han had heard back from Leia with confirmation from her spies that the First Order had indeed been experimenting on some of its soldiers on Medical Base 5-874, it had confirmed their theory that they were responsible for Finn’s healing. He’d pulled Jessika and Karé aside and made Jessika promise to kill him if the First Order captured him during the rescue mission. There was no way that he wanted to live the rest of his life being a First Order test subject and he couldn’t ask Han or Snap to do it.

“Finn! My hero!” Poe laughed. “Get over here!”

With a nod at Karé, Finn walked towards Poe only to be knocked out of the way when Snap ran onto the ship. He picked Poe up and shook him.

“Never die like that again, you svaper!” He yelled and then pulled Poe into a bearhug that had Finn wincing in sympathy for Poe’s ribs.

Han’s hand on his shoulder had stopped Finn from actually falling when Snap had barrelled passed him.

“Good job, kid. You brought him home.” He gave Finn a lopsided smile and then raised his voice. “Alright, alright, you can all maul Poe later. Right now, we need our pilot to get us out of here and into hyperspace before the First Order sweeps this sector.”

Poe extracted himself from Snap and Chewbacca and headed to the cockpit with Han who gave him a hearty slap on the back as they went, causing Finn to smile as he watched them go.

“So what exactly did the two of you do to cause such a commotion on the base?” Snap asked Finn, as they all moved to the lounge seating area.

“Yeah, Jessika said that the alarms were going off like crazy,” Rey said, bouncing over to join them.

Karé had snuck out to join Jessika on Luke’s old X-Wing for the return journey but everyone else looked at him expectantly so, with a grin, Finn told them all the tale of their daring escape.

By the time Poe landed them back in the little cove, Finn was dead on his feet. Once the adrenaline and the high from the knowledge that _they’d done it_ left, all the stress of the past week caught up with him. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed, wrap himself around Poe and sleep for the next few days. When he met up with Poe on the ramp, the other man looked like he felt exactly the same.

They supported each other on the steep walk to the huts and Finn could’ve hugged Luke when he walked into the hut he’d come to think of as his own to find the fire already lit making the room cosy and comforting. Of course, Luke was nowhere to be seen so the hug would have to wait. Finn crawled into the bed and pulled Poe down with him, he was asleep as soon as the other man was in his arms.

They didn’t exactly sleep for three whole days, more like a standard day and a bit. The others left them alone although someone had pushed some ksharra bread and some type of ale into the room for them at some point.

They both polished that off in short order but fell back onto the bed, loathe to leave their little bubble of quiet just yet. Finn filled Poe in on everything he’d missed while he’d been dead and had to take his top off to show his now almost entirely blemish free back. The feel of Poe’s hands stroking over his skin lit that spark that Poe always seemed to arouse in him but there would be plenty of time for that later; for now, Finn just wanted to enjoy being with Poe again and, from the smile Poe gave him, he felt the same.

Poe told Finn what had happened after Takodana and Finn gave him an incredulous look.

“He thought that he could turn you to the dark side?” he asked. “You?”

Poe shook his head. “I think that he could have, given enough time to wear me down. Everyone’s got bad memories that could be used against them.”

“He couldn’t have,” Finn insisted. “Do you actually want power? Do you want to rule the galaxy? Or do you want to fly about living a life of excitement and adventure with this ragtag crew of smugglers?”

Poe burst out laughing at Finn’s impression of him. “You’re right. What the hell would I do with a galaxy anyway?”

Eventually, they had to leave their hut; especially when some delicious smells drifted in. Following the smell, they found themselves in Luke’s hut where everyone else was tucking into some kind of stew. With a smile, Luke served them each a dish and they joined the rest of the crew. It really was delicious and Finn tried really hard not to think about what it was made from because if it turned out to be porg then he was pretty sure it would all come straight back up.

When they’d all eaten their fill, Han leaned back in his seat and looked at them all.

“I’ve sent Leia the files that me and Snap downloaded from the medical base,” he said.

“What files did you get?” Poe asked and Han smirked.

“Finn’s medical records, listing everything they did to him while he was there and also the helmet cam footage of what really happen at Tuanul.”

“Leia’s going to make sure that the footage runs on the next HoloNet News,” Luke informed them all. “Everyone will know who was really behind that massacre and the First Order’s contract on you will become null and void.”

“They could still come after us,” Jessika pointed out. “Just as revenge.”

“They could.” Luke nodded. “And they’ll probably try but I think that they’re going to have their hands full pretty soon. Leia is taking Finn’s records to the New Republic along with the new evidence that they’ve now gathered in regards to them stealing babies and children to be their Stormtroopers. The hope is that the New Republic will now officially denounce the First Order and we can begin work to defeat them.”

“We?” Snap asked with a raised eyebrow.

Han sighed. “Leia’s starting a new rebellion…”

“Resistance,” Luke corrected.

Han waved his hand. “Whatever. She wants us to join. I told her that we’d discuss it and get back to her.”

“She wants us to be soldiers?” Rey asked dubiously.

Finn shared her reluctance. He’d been a soldier and he hadn’t been all that good at it.

“Oh, kriff no!” Han scoffed. “We’d be doing pretty much the same was we always do. We find stuff, stuff that they need, and we go get it.”

Poe frowned. “But we wouldn’t get paid, right?”

“So that sounds exactly like what we normally do.” Snap snorted and Han gave him a rude gesture.

Snap just smirked so it looked to Finn as though the cold war between them had started to thaw now that Poe was back home.

“Whatever you decide, it will probably be best if you all stay here for a while until the First Order stop actively looking for you,” Luke told them. “Poe, perhaps you might like to learn some of the ways of the Force while you are here. I have some meditation exercises that might help with your abilities.”

Poe grimaced. “No offense but I don’t think so. I’ve had just about enough of the Force.”

Luke nodded. “I understand. It’s not a path for everyone.”

“I think that Poe would prefer to learn the ways of your X-Wing,” Snap said and Poe’s eyes got wide.

“X-Wing?”


	15. Chapter 15

“A thousand credits,” the Chagrian offered and Han laughed.

“A thousand? It’s worth double that. But I’m a nice guy, so how about fifteen hundred?”

Finn held his breath as he watched the Chagrian frown.

“I do not have fifteen hundred,” the Chagrian finally admitted.

Han huffed and rubbed a hand over his face as if really disappointed. “I don’t suppose you’ve got anything that could sweeten the pot? A thousand credits is just too low.”

The Chagrain suddenly sat up and smiled. “I have a servant droid which I recently acquired. I had been planning to tune it up and sell it on for six hundred credits but, if you’re in the market for a droid, I could trade it to you, still in its current condition of course, along with the thousand credits.”

“Got him!” Finn murmured and the Admiral chuckled.

“Did you really doubt it?”

Finn raised an eyebrow at him. “After Naboo? Of course I did.”

Statura winced at the reminder of that particular mission. It was where they discovered that Finn’s healing powers extended to growing back an entire limb.

It had been almost a standard year since they had left Luke’s planet and they had been doing a lot of jobs for Leia’s Resistance; among some other jobs just for themselves, of course. As Maz had predicted, the First Order had turned their attention elsewhere; namely trying to destroy the ever growing Resistance and so the crew of the Falcon were mostly able to return to their previous way of life. An entirely new way of life for Finn, obviously, but one that he’d taken to like a pelikki to water.

This particular job was an easy one. The resistance needed information held in the memory banks of this particular droid so they had to get it out of the Chagrain’s hands before he did the standard memory wipe before selling it on.

Han and the Chagrain shook hands on the deal and, once Han and Chewie returned from getting the new droid situated on the Falcon, the crew all took the opportunity to let their hair down and enjoy the rest of the evening in a local cantina.

Snap sat in a booth with a very pretty Twi’lek hanging on his every word and Finn was sure that it wouldn’t take long until they headed off somewhere private. Finn was standing at the bar along with Statura, Han and Chewbacca. The other three were discussing whatever mission Jessika and Karé were off on at the moment but Finn wasn’t really listening. Instead he watched with a grin on his face as Poe and Rey cleared the dance floor with their dancing. Rey was a danger to everyone around her with her jerky leg kicks and uncoordinated arm waving but Poe, even when he followed whatever craziness Rey was doing, he still exuded an effortless sensuality. It was those hips, Finn decided. Those hips and that ass. And the strong thighs.

Finn shifted as the familiar heat built in him while he watched his boyfriend. He knocked back the rest of his drink and stalked through the cantina to the dance floor. He ducked one of Rey’s flailing arms and got behind Poe, wrapping his arms around him. Poe laughed, a little out of breath, as he leaned back against him and turned his head to kiss Finn.

“Wanna dance?” he asked and Finn shook his head.

“I’d rather head back to the ship, flyboy.”

Poe gave him a dirty grin. “Oh yeah, what did you have in mind?”

“Something that will make Han try to kick us off the ship again,” Finn promised. “The pilot’s seat?”

Poe’s eyes darkened as Finn had known they would. “Let’s go!”

He grabbed Finn’s hand, winked at Rey and then led Finn out of the cantina with single-minded purpose. Finn caught sight of Han watching them go with a long suffering expression on his face but the Admiral shot them a salute, probably happy that he had a room in the small town and wouldn’t have to hear them this time. Snap gave them a knowing smirk, even as he, Chewbacca, the Twi’lek and one of the Twi’lek’s companions took Poe’s place on the dance floor with Rey. 

Not for the first time, Finn was struck with a profound sense of family and belonging that he’d stumbled into with this ragtag crew of smugglers and the man he’d loved almost from the moment they’d first met.

“You okay?” Poe asked when Finn suddenly stopped following him.

Finn took hold of Poe’s face and kissed him, trying to pour everything he was feeling into it and left them both a little breathless.

“Never better,” he replied and he meant every word.

***The End***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have deliberately left it up to the reader's own opinion if the Jedi is actually Kylo Ren or not. Truthfully, if I'd started down that road then the fic wouldn't have been about Finn and Poe any longer and probably would have ended up at double the size. So I decided to leave it all a bit ambiguous: did Ben Solo actually die and the Jedi is someone else that the Supreme Leader managed to corrupt? Or was Ben's death somehow faked and the Jedi is actually Kylo Ren? Who knows?


End file.
